Optimizing the Minimum Detectable Difference of Gamma Camera SPECT Images via the Taguchi Analysis: A Feasibility Study with a V-Shaped Slit Gauge

This study tried to propose an innovated idea of solidifying the resolution of gamma camera in routine quality control and recommended a quantified index as minimum detectable difference (MDD) of gamma camera SPECT images using the Taguchi analysis and an indigenous V-shaped slit gauge. The gauge was customized to fulfill the quantitative requirement of the Taguchi analysis. The MDD among slit gauge of derived SPECT image was calculated from two overlapped peak profiles collected from a tangent slice of the V-shaped slit gauge with two nearby peaks. In particular, MDD was evaluated as minimum distance between two peak centers through the Student's t-test with a constant, 1.96, which indicates that two peak centers separated distant enough to create a 95% confidence level of separation. Eighteen combinations of six gamma camera scanned factors were organized according to Taguchi analysis. Accordingly, (A) collimator, (B) detector to targe distance, (C) total counts, (D) acquired energy width, (E) Matrix size, and (F) zoom of collected ROI with each of two or three levels were organized into 18 groups to collect the slit gauge images according to Taguchi L-18 orthogonal array. Then, three well-trained radiologists were ranked the scanned gauge images to derive the fish-bone-plot of signal-to-noise ratio (S/N, dB) and correlated ANOVA. Furthermore, the quantified MDD was proposed to verify the optimal suggestion of gamma camera scanned protocol, and obtained the MDD as 8.4, 7.9, and 7.1 mm for the second group of original L-18 preset, conventional, and the optimal preset, respectively. Thus, the optimal preset of gamma camera was achieved in this study. The MDD proved to be a successful index in quantifying the imaging resolution of a gamma camera.