Scatter reduction with energy-weighted acquisition

The theory of energy-weighted acquisition (EWA) in nuclear medicine imaging is outlined, and a system that implements EWA is described. EWA reduces the effects of scattered radiation by allowing events of all energies to contribute to image formation, processing each energy with its own short-range spatial filter. This approach implements short-range energy-dependent filtering with an image buffer called a weighted acquisition module, providing scatter reduction with controllable noise and resolution properties. The system's response to point sources and planar distributions of radioactivity embedded in radiation-scattering media have been measured. EWA is compared to conventional energy-window acquisition, showing that the EWA approach provides improved image contrast