Phantom and clinical assessment of small pulmonary nodules using Q.Clear reconstruction on a silicon-photomultiplier-based time-of-flight PET/CT system

Abstract To evaluate the quantification accuracy of different positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) reconstruction algorithms, we measured the recovery coefficient (RC) and contrast recovery (CR) in phantom studies. The results played a guiding role in the partial-volume-effect c...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zhifang Wu, Binwei Guo, Bin Huang, Xinzhong Hao, Ping Wu, Bin Zhao, Zhixing Qin, Jun Xie, Sijin Li
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:
R
Q
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/96fa3a175c9f4543970fad98877b0a9b
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:Abstract To evaluate the quantification accuracy of different positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) reconstruction algorithms, we measured the recovery coefficient (RC) and contrast recovery (CR) in phantom studies. The results played a guiding role in the partial-volume-effect correction (PVC) for following clinical evaluations. The PET images were reconstructed with four different methods: ordered subsets expectation maximization (OSEM), OSEM with time-of-flight (TOF), OSEM with TOF and point spread function (PSF), and Bayesian penalized likelihood (BPL, known as Q.Clear in the PET/CT of GE Healthcare). In clinical studies, SUVmax and SUVmean (the maximum and mean of the standardized uptake values, SUVs) of 75 small pulmonary nodules (sub-centimeter group: < 10 mm and medium-size group: 10–25 mm) were measured from 26 patients. Results show that Q.Clear produced higher RC and CR values, which can improve quantification accuracy compared with other methods (P < 0.05), except for the RC of 37 mm sphere (P > 0.05). The SUVs of sub-centimeter fludeoxyglucose (FDG)-avid pulmonary nodules with Q.Clear illustrated highly significant differences from those reconstructed with other algorithms (P < 0.001). After performing the PVC, highly significant differences (P < 0.001) still existed in the SUVmean measured by Q.Clear comparing with those measured by the other algorithms. Our results suggest that the Q.Clear reconstruction algorithm improved the quantification accuracy towards the true uptake, which potentially promotes the diagnostic confidence and treatment response evaluations with PET/CT imaging, especially for the sub-centimeter pulmonary nodules. For small lesions, PVC is essential.