The performance of the single-slice rebinning technique for imaging the human striatum as evaluated by phantom studies.

The single-slice rebinning (SSRB) technique has been implemented on a ring-based tomograph with removable septa and its performance evaluated with phantom studies. The studies involved the determination of the plane efficiency profile and the mapping of the point spread function. The image quality obtained using the SSRB technique has been compared to that obtained using the standard 3D reconstruction method in terms of the following figures of merit: recovery as a function of source axial position and slice averaging, contrast recovery and contrast to background noise ratio as a function of source axial position. The effect of the region of interest (ROI) size on such a comparison has been evaluated. Finally the effects of different contrast conditions and ROI position on a striatal phantom image have been thoroughly explored.