Bone imaging with energy-weighted acquisition.

Abstract

Scattered radiation is the principal cause of image degradation in nuclear imaging. Several strategies have been tried to reduce the contribution of scattered radiation in nuclear imaging including energy-weighted acquisition (EWA). EWA reduces the effect of scattered radiation by assigning a positive value for primary photon and a negative value for scattered radiation. The effect of EWA for lesion detection on bone scans was compared with a standard acquisition protocol, referred to as normal weighted acquisition (NWA), in 97 patients by simultaneously acquiring bone scan images using both protocols. EWA identified 436 lesions (mean 4.49) and NWA 415 lesions (mean 4.28). There was no statistical difference in the number of lesions identified nor in the intensity of uptake in these lesions when assessed qualitatively. Therefore, it is concluded that EWA does not enhance lesion detection on 99mTc bone scans.