A mentored training program in quantitative medical imaging

描述(由候选人提供)： 单光子发射计算机断层扫描(SPECT)是一种在临床和医学研究中广泛应用的核医学技术。在SPECT中，例如，通过注射将标记的放射性核素引入受试者。然后，旋转的伽马相机收集/计数发射的光子。在每个位置，摄像机都会收集被研究器官的二维投影。从统计学的观点来看，这种情况很少见，因为发射的光子衰变的泊松分布是已知的。挑战是在只观察投影数据的情况下估计这种分布的平均速率。这笔赠款的主要目标是激励和发展一项严格的医学成像重建物理和仪器方面的培训计划，重点是SPECT重建问题。本次申请，提出了一套教学与科研相结合的培养方案，为医学影像科学奠定了基础。这一建议的具体目标建立在SPECT图像重建迭代算法的成功基础上。尽管取得了这样的成功，但目前的做法存在运行时间长和停止算法的临时程序的问题。该方案的目的是加速基于EM的迭代重建算法，并从理论和经验上研究迭代内平滑。所有开发的算法都将使用蒙特卡罗和实际患者数据进行广泛测试。

DESCRIPTION (provided by candidate): Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) is a popular nuclear medicine technique in clinical practice and medical research. In SPECT, a labeled radionuclide is introduced into a subject, via injection, for example. The emitted photons are then collected/counted by rotating gamma cameras. At each position the camera collects a two dimensional projection of the organ under study. This situation is rare from a statistical viewpoint because the Poisson distribution of the decay of the emitted photons is known. The challenge is to estimate the mean rate of this distribution when only observing the projection data. The primary goal of this grant is to motivate and develop a rigorous training program in the physics and instrumentation of medical imaging reconstruction focusing on the SPECT reconstruction problem. This application, proposes a didactic and research training program to build a foundation in the science of medical imaging. The specific aims of this proposal build on the success of iterative algorithms for SPECT image reconstruction. Despite this success, current practices suffer from long run times and ad hoc procedures for stopping the algorithm. The aims of this proposal are to accelerate EM based iterative reconstruction algorithms and to theoretically and empirically investigate intra-iteration smoothing. All of the developed algorithms will be extensively tested using Monte Carlo and actual patient data.