Relevance of accurate Monte Carlo modeling in nuclear medical imaging

Abstract

Monte Carlo techniques have become popular in different areas of medical physics with advantage of powerful computing systems. In particular, they have been extensively applied to simulate processes involving random behavior and to quantify physical parameters that are difficult or even impossible to calculate by experimental measurements. Recent nuclear medical imaging innovations such as single-photon emission computed tomography ͑SPECT͒, positron emission tomography ͑PET͒, and multiple emission tomography ͑MET͒ are ideal for Monte Carlo modeling techniques because of the stochastic nature of radiation emission, transport and detection processes. Factors which have contributed to the wider use include improved models of radiation transport processes, the practicality of application with the development of acceleration schemes and the improved speed of computers. In this paper we present a derivation and methodological basis for this approach and critically review their areas of application in nuclear imaging. An overview of existing simulation programs is provided and illustrated with examples of some useful features of such sophisticated tools in connection with common computing facilities and more powerful multiple-processor parallel processing systems. Current and future trends in the field are also discussed.

Application of GEANT4radiation transport toolkit to dose calculations in anthropomorphic phantoms

“…The need to predict dose is a common requirement of several research fields such as external and internal radiotherapy [1,2], nuclear medicine imaging [3], radionuclide therapy [4], hadrontherapy [5], radioprotection in high-energy accelerators, commercial air flights [6] and space dosimetry [7].…”

On the concept of scattered gamma-ray imaging and corresponding generalized Radon transforms

“…However, since single-scattered photons dominate the process [23], we shall limit ourselves in this paper to single-scattered photons.…”

“…More generally n th -order scattering events carrying the n th -power of the Klein-Nishina term have even smaller occurence probability. Monte-Carlo studies [23] and experimental measurements [7] show that the first scattering is a dominant process compared to higher order scattering ones. As an example, in biological medium, single scattered radiation represents 36% of the total radiation against 4% of higher order scattered radiations.…”

Preliminary results from a Monte Carlo study of breast tumour imaging with low-energy high-resolution collimator and a modified uniformly-redundant array-coded aperture

“…Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX version 2.4.0) as used in this study, is a 3D general-purpose radiation transport code [8] that provides an accurate physics simulation within the photon range encountered in nuclear medicine imaging [9]. Figure 1 shows the different elements of the complete geometry studied for the two proposed systems.…”