Background: Various variance reduction
techniques such as forced detection (FD) have been
implemented in Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of
nuclear medicine in an effort to decrease the
simulation time while keeping accuracy. However most
of these techniques still result in very long MC
simulation times for being implemented into routine
use. Materials and Methods: Convolution-based
forced detection (CFD) method as a variance reduction
technique was implemented into the well known
SIMIND MC photon simulation software. A variety of
simulations including point and extended sources in
uniform and non-uniform attenuation media, were
performed to compare differences between FD and
CFD versions of SIMIND modeling for I131 radionuclide
and camera configurations. Experimental
measurement of system response function was
compared to FD and CFD simulation data. Results:
Different simulations using the CFD method agree very
well with experimental measurements as well as FD
version. CFD simulations of system response function
and larger sources in uniform and non-uniform
attenuated phantoms also agree well with FD version
of SIMIND. Conclusion: CFD has been modeled into
the SIMIND MC program and validated. With the
current implementation of CFD, simulation times were
approximately 10-15 times shorter with similar
accuracy and image quality compared with FD MC.
Iran. J. Radiat. Res., 2007 4 (4): 175-182
Khosravi H, Sarkar S, Takavar A, Saghari M, Shahriari M. Planar and SPECT Monte Carlo acceleration using a variance reduction technique in I131 imaging. Int J Radiat Res 2007; 4 (4) :175-182 URL: http://ijrr.com/article-1-265-en.html