Mark H. Crosthwaite, M. Ed., CNMT, PET, RS, FSNMMI-TS     
828-3264

Monday and Wednesday 1030 to 1150 Hours
CHP 3003

CLRS 322 Nuclear Medicine Physics and Instrumentation II
Spring 2023

Course Description
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisites: CLRS 317CLRS 321 and CLRZ 321 with a minimum grade of C in all. Co requisite: CLRZ 322. Presents advanced applications in physics and the operating principles of nuclear medicine imaging devices and related quality control procedures.

Required text and reading will come from

Nuclear Medicine Instrumentation, 2nd edition, by Jennifer Prekeges

Background and Additional Materials from Nuclear Medicine Technology and Techniques, Christian, Waterstram-Rich , Eighth Edition; Mosby, 2012.

Physics in Nuclear Medicine by Cherry, Sorenson, and Phelps, 3 rd Edition (suggested reading)
Supplementary Resources:   Articles of current topics pertinent to text chapters will be presented and discussed.

Evaluation and Grading

Grade Scale
93 - 100% A
85 -    92 B
77 -    84 C* Minimum Grade for Passing
69 -    76 D
Below 68 F

Content

Exam I: Gamma Peak, some instrumentation and statistics 20%
Exam II: Gamma Camera, application and QC 20%
Exam III: SPECT imaging applications and QC 20%
Final Exam: Comprehensive 25%
Kahoot/Attendance 5%
Assignments 10%

Course Outline

Week of

  Chapter       

Topic
1/18
4
Review of Statistics
1/23
4
Sensitivity, Specificity, and Accuracy
1/30
due
Exam I (take home)
2/6
6
Pulses, Pixels, Matrix, and Color Tables
2/13
Imaging Uniformity
2/20
7
Collimators
2/27
8
Planar Acquisition 1
3/6
9
Spring Break
3/13
9
Planar Acquisition 2
3/20
10
QC and its application in planar imaging
3/27 - 3/29
Exam II - SPECT Basics
4/3
10

Image Filtering (FBP)

4/10
10
Reconstruction and Filtering and Iterative Reconstruction
4/17
10

Acquisition Parameters and QC and Artifacts

4/24
10
Attenuation and Scatter
5/1 - 5/3
11
Exam III and Final Exam Review

This course follows the MCV campus schedule.

Exams/Quizzes and Assignment Policy

  1. Exams will encompass information discussed during lectures, handouts given in class, and homework/reading assignment.  Failure to take an exam on a scheduled exam day will automatically cause a 7% deduction from the total letter grade.  Make-up must be scheduled and completed ASAP, so that the entire class has the opportunity to review the results.  The only exception given to this policy will be if the student has made prior arrangements with the instructor.
  2. Kahoot will continue this semester as part of a "pop quiz" but will only be recorded as an attendance grade
  3. To receive full credit on attendance all Kahoots must be completed
  4. The Department Chair establishes policies and schedules for the CLRS final exams. The Department Chair must approve any changes regarding scheduling the course final exam. A penalty may be imposed for missing a scheduled final exam.

  5. Any assignment or homework given in class must be completed in a time designated by the instructor.  Late assignments will not be accepted.
  6. This is one of the professional courses in which the lowest passing grade is “C”.

Attendance Policy
Attendance is mandatory for all classes. See quizzes. Please note that the deadline for students to provide written notification to instructors of intent to observe religious holidays is January 27,2023

Policy Regarding Calculators
The Department of Radiation Sciences will only allow use of non-programmable (non-graphing) calculators.  Students will not be allowed to use programmable (graphing) calculators during any type of examination.  In addition, students will not be allowed to share calculators during any examination.

Policies Regarding the Academic Calendar and Course Schedule

UNIVERSITY POLICIES:

The updated statements for syllabi and blackboard pages are available at https://uploads.provost.vcu.edu/syllabus.pdf

How to Prepared for Emergencies at VCU

  1. Sign up to receive VCU text messaging alerts (https://alert.vcu.edu/signup/). Keep your information up-to-date.
  2. Know the safe evacuation route from each of your classrooms. Emergency evacuation routes are posted in on-campus classrooms.
  3. Listen for and follow instructions from VCU or other designated authorities.
  4. Know where to go for additional emergency information (http://www.vcu.edu/alert).
  5. Know the emergency phone number for the VCU Police (828-1234).
  6. Report suspicious activities and objects.

Course Objectives

  1. Define and calculate mean, standard deviation (and %), coefficient of variation
  2. Describe, calculate, and interpret chi-square.
  3. Compare Gaussian and Poisson distribution
  4. Explain, calculate, and interpret sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy.
  5. Complete a decay problem and determine the mL to be used based on decay. Go
  6. Understand and define the different components a pulse height. Go
    1. Define scatter, determine its effect on spectrum (pulses)?
    2. Identify coincidence summing. Go
    3. Discuss crystal thickness
    4. Effects of attenuation (plastic)
    5. Effects of efficiency with crystal thickness and variation in the energy gamma
  7. Details of a pixel. Go
    1. Define a LUT and discuss its applications
    2. Calculate the correct gray scale based on pixel counts
    3. Calculate the size of a pixel
    4. Determine the type of matrix size based on the procedure
    5. Compare pixel depth based on bytes and word mode
    6. Discuss the effects of PVE
    7. Determine image resolution based on matrix, pixel size, and the size of the lesion
    8. Consider the modes of image acquisition. Go
  8. Define the different components of nonuniformity in a gamma camera
    1. Identify the discordances with XYZ pulses
    2. Discuss the components of energy and linearity corrections
    3. Compare and identify different forms of autotuning
    4. Brief discuss digital detectors
  9. Review the concepts of collimation Go
    1. Identify septa design: cast, foil, micocast, and microlinear
    2. Apply the concepts: GF, AF, PF, and SF with collimation
    3. Compare septa length, diameter, and thickness to sensitivity and resolution with associated photon energy
    4. Apply the terms umbra and preumbra to collimator design
    5. Understand and apply different types of collimators to an imaging procedure: parallel, converging, diverging, pinhole, fan beam, and slate hole
  10. Identify deadtime and its effect on a pulse height. Go
    1. Pulse clipping
    2. Pulse-tail extrapolation
    3. How does these adjustments effect image quality? Contrast
  11. Apply the different elements of an image: background, scatter, attenuation, and noise
  12. Determine the issues in imaging in a planar dimension (as compared to 3D)
  13. Camera sensitivity. How are quality control procedure used to evaluate image performance? Go
  14. Consider spatial resolution and the following components - Go
    1. Intrinsic vs. extrinsic resolution
    2. Misalignment of PMTs
    3. Crystal thickness and energy gamma
    4. Distance from the acquired source
    5. Not enough counts
    6. LSF - FWHM and FWTM (calculate the values)
    7. MTF and its relationship to the frequency domain
    8. Variation in image matrix
    9. Variation with the energy window
  15. Determine %SD within a pixel and how it might effect image quality. Go
  16. Apply of Quality Control in planar imaging - Go
    1. Setup and usage of flood field uniformity and Bar
    2. Integral and differential uniformity
    3. Moire pattern
    4. Pixel size calculation
    5. Collimator integrity
    6. Multi-window spatial registration
  17. Understanding the following fields of view: FOV, FFOV, and CFOV - Go
  18. Identify issues that occur during QC. Examples are noted here
  19. Understanding and discuss Filtered Back projection in SPECT imaging
    1. Why does FBP have greater noise when compared to planar?
    2. What is the star defect?
    3. How is it eliminated?
    4. Define the role of a Fourier reconstruction
  20. Assess spatial to frequency Domains
    1. Define it
    2. Define the parts of an MTF domain: noise, bkg, true counts, large/small objects
  21. Nyquist Frequency
    1. Define it
    2. Calculate it
    3. Determine the causes aliasing
  22. Filtering and image reconstruction
    1. Identify the need to pre-filter
    2. Define the parts of a filter: order, power, windowing, critical frequency
    3. Explain the following filters: low/high/band pass, restoration, surface rendering, dynamic triangulation
  23. Iterative Reconstruction
    1. Define and compare to FBP
    2. Understand the basic steps of IR
    3. Compare OSEM to MLEM
  24. SPECT acquisition
    1. Define the imaging characteristics
    2. Define particle volume effect
    3. Consider: zoom, collimation, matrix, energy window, type of orbit
  25. Attenuation Correction
    1. Chang and the homogenous effect
    2. Line source - two and three heads
    3. 153Gd vs CT
    4. Outline the components of attenuation correct with the use of CT
    5. Scatter and attenuation correction
      1. Discuss how gamma-rays interact in a media at the atomic level
      2. Compare 140 keV to 511 keV
      3. Compare bone to water to air
      4. Determine the effects of scatter at depth with SPECT?
      5. Determine the role of collimation in associated scatter. Examples ultra-high resolution collimator as compared to high resolution collimator
      6. Compare rod source or CT for scatter correction and attenuation
      7. Understand the concept of resolution recovery
  26. Scatter Correction - Attenuation Correction
    1. Determine the correlation between scatter and variations of count density
    2. Discuss rod/line source - TBAC
    3. Compare type of radioactive source with TBAC
    4. Apply CT to scatter correction
      1. Define down sampling
      2. Define segmentation on an AC map?
      3. Identify monochromatic vs polychromatic photons
      4. Assess the role of scaling in SPECXT and PET
      5. Determine the use of a reference scan?
      6. Defione beam hardening
  27. Quality Control
    1. Compare and contrast - Intrinsic to Extrinsic uniformity
    2. Determine the advantages/disadvantages of
      1. Refillable floods
      2. 57Co sheet source
      3. Point source
      4. Review examples of flood uniformity and examine its quality
    3. Discuss the procedure COR
      1. Differentiate between COR and a AOR?
      2. Identify the X-axis offset
      3. Identify the Y-axis offset
      4. Compare COR data
    4. Discuss the procedure to determine detector head stability
    5. Jaszczak phantom
      1. Define the components of the phantom and determine how these components assess SPECT QC
      2. Calculate system volume sensitivity
  28. Review types of artifacts generated on a SPECT scan
    1. Motion - 180 vs 360 degree
    2. Blending of motion and ray
    3. Truncation

 

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