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Published in: European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 4/2024

Open Access 13-11-2023 | Original Article

Mitigating SUV uncertainties using total body PET imaging

Authors: Charlotte L. C. Smith, Gerben J. C. Zwezerijnen, Marijke E. den Hollander, Jolijn Weijland, Maqsood Yaqub, Ronald Boellaard

Published in: European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging | Issue 4/2024

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Abstract

Purpose

Standardised uptake values (SUV) are commonly used to quantify 18F-FDG lesion uptake. However, SUVs may suffer from several uncertainties and errors. Long-axial field-of-view (LAFOV) PET/CT systems might enable image-based quality control (QC) by deriving 18F-FDG activity and weight from total body (TB) 18F-FDG PET images. In this study, we aimed to develop these image-based QC to reduce errors and mitigate SUV uncertainties.

Methods

Twenty-five out of 81 patient scans from a LAFOV PET/CT system were used to determine regression fits for deriving of image-derived activity and weight. Thereafter, the regression fits were applied to 56 independent 18F-FDG PET scans from the same scanner to determine if injected activity and weight could be obtained accurately from TB and half-body (HB) scans. Additionally, we studied the impact of image-based values on the precision of liver SUVmean and lesion SUVpeak. Finally, 20 scans were acquired from a short-axial field-of-view (SAFOV) PET/CT system to determine if the regression fits also applied to HB scans from a SAFOV system.

Results

Both TB and HB 18F-FDG activity and weight significantly predicted reported injected activity (r = 0.999; r = 0.984) and weight (r = 0.999; r = 0.987), respectively. After applying the regression fits, 18F-FDG activity and weight were accurately derived within 4.8% and 3.2% from TB scans and within 4.9% and 3.1% from HB, respectively. Image-derived values also mitigated liver and lesion SUV variability compared with reported values. Moreover, 18F-FDG activity and weight obtained from a SAFOV scanner were derived within 6.7% and 4.5%, respectively.

Conclusion

18F-FDG activity and weight can be derived accurately from TB and HB scans, and image-derived values improved SUV precision and corrected for lesion SUV errors. Therefore, image-derived values should be included as QC to generate a more reliable and reproducible quantitative uptake measurement.
Literature
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Metadata
Title
Mitigating SUV uncertainties using total body PET imaging
Authors
Charlotte L. C. Smith
Gerben J. C. Zwezerijnen
Marijke E. den Hollander
Jolijn Weijland
Maqsood Yaqub
Ronald Boellaard
Publication date
13-11-2023
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging / Issue 4/2024
Print ISSN: 1619-7070
Electronic ISSN: 1619-7089
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-023-06503-x

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