Direct comparison of brain [18F]FDG images acquired by SiPM-based and PMT-based PET/CT: phantom and clinical studies

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Background: The silicon photomultiplier-positron emission tomography (SiPM-PET) developed by GE Healthcare has better sensitivity, spatial resolution, and timing resolution than photomultiplier tubes (PMT)-PET. The present study aimed to clarify the advantages of SiPM-PET in 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ([18F]FDG) brain imaging in a head-to-head comparison with PMT-PET in phantom and clinical studies. Methods: Image contrast was calculated from images acquired from a Hoffman 3D brain phantom and image noise and uniformity were calculated from pooled images acquired from a pool phantom using SiPM- and PMT-PET. Sequential PMT-PET and SiPM-PET [18F]FDG images were acquired over a period of 10 min from 22 controls and 10 patients. All images were separately normalized to a standard [18F]FDG PET template, then mean standardized uptake values (SUVmean) and Z-score were calculated by MIMneuro and CortexID Suite, respectively. Results: Image contrast, image noise, and uniformity in SiPM-PET changed 19.2%, 3.5%, and -40.0% from PMT-PET, respectively. These physical indices of both PET scanners satisfied the criteria for acceptable image quality published by the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine of &gt; 55%, ≤ 15% and ≤ 0.0249, respectively. The contrast in SiPM-PET was slightly improved using TOF. The SUVmean using SiPM-PET was significantly higher than PMT-PET and did not correlate with a time delay. Z-scores were also significantly higher in images acquired from SiPM-PET (except for the bilateral posterior cingulate) than PMT-PET because the peak signal that was extracted by the calculation of Z-score in CortexID Suite was raised. The area of hypometabolism in statistical maps was reduced and localized by SiPM-PET compared with PMT-PET regardless of whether the images were derived from controls or patients. Conclusions: The improved spatial resolution and sensitivity of SiPM-PET contributed to better image contrast and uniformity in brain [18F]FDG images. The SiPM-PET offers better quality and more accurate quantitation of brain PET images. The SUVmean and Z-score in SiPM-PET was higher than PMT-PET due to improving the PVEs. [18F]FDG images acquired using SiPM-PET will help to improve diagnostic outcomes based on statistical image analysis becausethe SiPM-PET would localize the distribution of glucose metabolism on Z-score maps.</jats:p>