Evaluating and comparing the image quality and quantification accuracy of SiPM-PET/CT and PMT-PET/CT

Tsutsui, Yuji; Awamoto, Shinichi; Himuro, Kazuhiko; Kato, Tomoko S.; Baba, Shingo; Sasaki, Masayuki

doi:10.1007/s12149-020-01496-1

Cited by 13 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…artefacts are clearly seen on all reconstructed images shown in the second raw in Figure 4−7 which manifested themselves in surge of the RPD accumulation intensity in small tumors and intensity growth was observed at the tumor lesion edges in large tumors. These results correspond to the experimental measurements carried out using physical phantoms [3,5]. The edge artefact problem casts doubt on the correctness of quantitative assessment of the RPD accumulation intensity on the tumor lesion images.…”

Section: Discussion Of the Resultssupporting

confidence: 82%

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Pitfalls" in the path of quantitative assessment of the severity of oncological lesions in diagnostic nuclear medicine

Nesterova

Denisova

2022

Technical Physics

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When examining patients by single-photon emission computed tomography, the distribution of a radiopharmaceutical drug in biological tissues is evaluated. An active fast-growing tumor has an increased uptake of the drug compared to healthy tissues. In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the level of activity of a radiopharmaceutical in tumor lesions, since it can be useful for monitoring the effectiveness of prescribed therapy. To obtain quantitative results, it is necessary that the applied reconstruction algorithms include the main effects that contribute to the formation of images. One of these factors is the geometric resolution of the collimator. It was expected that taking into account this effect would improve the quantitative assessment of tumor lesions in reconstructed images. However, there were "pitfalls" in the way of obtaining quantitative images. In the diagnostic images obtained taking into account the "geometric resolution of the collimator", so-called edge artifacts were observed, which manifested themselves in the form of a sharp increase in intensity of radiopharmaceutical accumulation in small tumors and as oscillations in the intensity of radiopharmaceutical accumulation at the edges in large tumors. The problem of edge artifacts casts doubt on the correctness of quantitative assessment the level of intensity of drug accumulation in tumor lesions. In this paper, the problem of edge artifacts is investigated using the method of mathematical modeling. In numerical experiments, the dependence of the quantitative estimate of the intensity of RPD accumulation on the parameters of the reconstruction algorithm was investigated for the first time. Keywords: Nuclear medicine, mathematical modeling, single-photon emission computed tomography, edge artifacts.

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Section: Discussion Of the Resultssupporting

confidence: 82%

“…This ultimately causes quantitative overestimate of RPD accumulation intensity. The investigations in [5] used a specially designed physical phantom. The reconstruction was carried out using OSEM.…”

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confidence: 99%

Pitfalls" in the path of quantitative assessment of the severity of oncological lesions in diagnostic nuclear medicine

Nesterova

Denisova

2022

Technical Physics

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“…A post filtering of the image is still possible to make a noisier image more readable. However, one should be careful when pushing the RR algorithms too far (disregarding the SNR) as one might end up with artefactual images that are no more representative of the activity distribution, typically by producing edge artifacts [17,18].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cardiac atrial metabolism quantitative assessment with analog and digital time of flight-PET/computed tomography

Hesse

Marchandise

Gerber

et al. 2023

Nuclear Medicine Communications

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Background Evaluation of left atrium (LA) remodeling is becoming increasingly relevant in understanding several pathological cardiac conditions. 18 F-FDG-PET/computed tomography (CT), the current gold standard for metabolic evaluation of the left ventricle, could be extended to LA using the latest PET technologies. We sought to perform a phantom study to optimize the reconstruction algorithm in this context. MethodsThe liver, heart cavity and walls of an anthropomorphic phantom were filled with typical patient 18 F-FDG activity concentrations. Acquisitions were performed on an analog and on a digital TOF-PET/CT, and reconstructed with and without resolution recovery (RR). The Richardson-Lucy RR method was used, either through a third-party software or through the PET/CT manufacturer algorithm. Activity recoveries in the atria and ventricles and signal-to-noise ratios were evaluated to identify the best reconstruction and RR parameters. The same methodology was applied on a patient cardiac study. ResultsAnalog PET/CT with the third-party RR cannot improve the activity recovery without markedly degrading the image quality. For the digital PET/CT, the optimal algorithm was the manufacturer RR reconstruction using four iterations and 15 subsets combined with five RR iterations. This reconstruction improved the LA activity recovery from 58% to 70% while preserving images of diagnostic quality. Similar results were obtained for the patient study. ConclusionThe digital TOF-PET/CT with the identified optimal reconstruction can be used to quantitatively analyze the LA uptake in 18 F-FDG cardiac studies while still preserving image reading quality. This may lead to more precise cardiovascular disease status evaluation, especially when atria are concerned. Nucl Med Commun

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“…Research indicates that the optimal number of iterations for OSEM reconstruction changes when the PSF is introduced [11]. In contrast, because there is a trade-off between resolution and noise, it is necessary to retain the same degree of image noise when comparing the sums of edge strengths among different reconstruction methods.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of point spread function correction and time-of-flight on visual contrast level and pixel values in brain PET images

Kamikawa

Yoshida

Kawahara

2023

Nuclear Medicine Communications

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Objectives Point spread function (PSF) correction and time-of-flight (TOF) can improve the quality of PET images. None have directly assessed the visual effects of these methods in brain PET images and evaluated the image quality from these methods based on the relationship between the number of updates and noise level. The present study aimed to clarify the effects of PSF and TOF on the visual contrast level and pixel values of brain PET images using an experimental phantom. Materials and methodsThe visual contrast level was evaluated based on the sum of edge strengths. In addition, the effects of PSF, TOF, and a combination of them on pixel values were evaluated after anatomical standardization of brain images, in which the whole brain was divided into 18 segments. These were evaluated using images reconstructed with the number of updates set to achieve the same noise level. ResultsCombined application of the point spread function and TOF resulted in the greatest increase in the sum of edge strengths (32%), followed by PSF (21%) and TOF (6%). The maximum increase in pixel values occurred in the thalamic area (17%). ConclusionAlthough PSF and TOF can increase the visual contrast level by increasing the sum of edge strengths, they may affect the results of software-based analysis using pixel values. Nonetheless, using these methods may improve the ability to visualize areas of hypoaccumulation, such as epileptic foci. Nucl Med Commun 44: 442-456

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Evaluating and comparing the image quality and quantification accuracy of SiPM-PET/CT and PMT-PET/CT

Cited by 13 publications

References 31 publications

Pitfalls" in the path of quantitative assessment of the severity of oncological lesions in diagnostic nuclear medicine

Pitfalls" in the path of quantitative assessment of the severity of oncological lesions in diagnostic nuclear medicine

Cardiac atrial metabolism quantitative assessment with analog and digital time of flight-PET/computed tomography

Effects of point spread function correction and time-of-flight on visual contrast level and pixel values in brain PET images

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Evaluating and comparing the image quality and quantification accuracy of SiPM-PET/CT and PMT-PET/CT

Cited by 13 publications

References 31 publications

Pitfalls&quot; in the path of quantitative assessment of the severity of oncological lesions in diagnostic nuclear medicine

Pitfalls&quot; in the path of quantitative assessment of the severity of oncological lesions in diagnostic nuclear medicine

Cardiac atrial metabolism quantitative assessment with analog and digital time of flight-PET/computed tomography

Effects of point spread function correction and time-of-flight on visual contrast level and pixel values in brain PET images

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Pitfalls" in the path of quantitative assessment of the severity of oncological lesions in diagnostic nuclear medicine

Pitfalls" in the path of quantitative assessment of the severity of oncological lesions in diagnostic nuclear medicine