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European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
Published in: European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 11/2008

01-11-2008 | Original Article

Initial clinical results for breath-hold CT-based processing of respiratory-gated PET acquisitions

Authors: Loïc Fin, Joël Daouk, Julie Morvan, Pascal Bailly, Isabelle El Esper, Lazhar Saidi, Marc-Etienne Meyer

Published in: European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging | Issue 11/2008

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Abstract

Purpose

Respiratory motion causes uptake in positron emission tomography (PET) images of chest structures to spread out and misregister with the CT images. This misregistration can alter the attenuation correction and thus the quantisation of PET images. In this paper, we present the first clinical results for a respiratory-gated PET (RG-PET) processing method based on a single breath-hold CT (BH-CT) acquisition, which seeks to improve diagnostic accuracy via better PET-to-CT co-registration. We refer to this method as “CT-based” RG-PET processing.

Methods

Thirteen lesions were studied. Patients underwent a standard clinical PET protocol and then the CT-based protocol, which consists of a 10-min List Mode RG-PET acquisition, followed by a shallow end-expiration BH-CT. The respective performances of the CT-based and clinical PET methods were evaluated by comparing the distances between the lesions’ centroids on PET and CT images. SUVMAX and volume variations were also investigated.

Results

The CT-based method showed significantly lower (p = 0.027) centroid distances (mean change relative to the clinical method = −49%; range = −100% to 0%). This led to higher SUVMAX (mean change = +33%; range = −4% to 69%). Lesion volumes were significantly lower (p = 0.022) in CT-based PET volumes (mean change = −39%: range = −74% to −1%) compared with clinical ones.

Conclusions

A CT-based RG-PET processing method can be implemented in clinical practice with a small increase in radiation exposure. It improves PET-CT co-registration of lung lesions and should lead to more accurate attenuation correction and thus SUV measurement.
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Metadata
Title
Initial clinical results for breath-hold CT-based processing of respiratory-gated PET acquisitions
Authors
Loïc Fin
Joël Daouk
Julie Morvan
Pascal Bailly
Isabelle El Esper
Lazhar Saidi
Marc-Etienne Meyer
Publication date
01-11-2008
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging / Issue 11/2008
Print ISSN: 1619-7070
Electronic ISSN: 1619-7089
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-008-0858-2

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