An automated method for the normalization of scintigraphic images.

The computer comparison of two images of the same organ requires normalization of the images. We propose an iterative, automated method of normalization that is highly insensitive to structural modifications in the images. The normalization factor is calculated by maximizing the number of sign changes in the scanned subtraction image with a unidimensionnal optimization method. This algorithm is efficient, computationally cheap, and can be implemented on most nuclear medicine data-processing systems.