Triple modality image reconstruction of PET data using SPECT, PET, CT information increases lesion uptake in images of patients treated with radioembolization with $$^{90}Y$$ micro-spheres

Abstract

Purpose Nuclear medicine imaging modalities like computed tomography (CT), single photon emission CT (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) are employed in the field of theranostics to estimate and plan the dose delivered to tumors and the surrounding tissues and to monitor the effect of the therapy. However, therapeutic radionuclides often provide poor images, which translate to inaccurate treatment planning and inadequate monitoring images. Multimodality information can be exploited in the reconstruction to enhance image quality. Triple modality PET/SPECT/CT scanners are particularly useful in this context due to the easier registration process between images. In this study, we propose to include PET, SPECT and CT information in the reconstruction of PET data. The method is applied to Yttrium-90 ($$^{90}$$ 90 Y) data. Methods Data from a NEMA phantom filled with $$^{90}$$ 90 Y were used for validation. PET, SPECT and CT data from 10 patients treated with Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) were used. Different combinations of prior images using the Hybrid kernelized expectation maximization were investigated in terms of VOI activity and noise suppression. Results Our results show that triple modality PET reconstruction provides significantly higher uptake when compared to the method used as standard in the hospital and OSEM. In particular, using CT-guided SPECT images, as guiding information in the PET reconstruction significantly increases uptake quantification on tumoral lesions. Conclusion This work proposes the first triple modality reconstruction method and demonstrates up to 69% lesion uptake increase over standard methods with SIRT $$^{90}$$ 90 Y patient data. Promising results are expected for other radionuclide combination used in theranostic applications using PET and SPECT.