Published in:
01-04-2020 | Original Article
Optimization of reconstruction and quantification of motion-corrected coronary PET-CT
Authors:
Mhairi K. Doris, MD, Yuka Otaki, MD, Sandeep K. Krishnan, MD, Jacek Kwiecinski, MD, Mathieu Rubeaux, PhD, Adam Alessio, PhD, Tinsu Pan, PhD, Sebastien Cadet, MSc, Damini Dey, PhD, Marc R. Dweck, MD, David E. Newby, MD, Daniel S. Berman, MD, Piotr J. Slomka, PhD
Published in:
Journal of Nuclear Cardiology
|
Issue 2/2020
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Abstract
Background
Coronary PET shows promise in the detection of high-risk atherosclerosis, but there remains a need to optimize imaging and reconstruction techniques. We investigated the impact of reconstruction parameters and cardiac motion-correction in 18F Sodium Fluoride (18F-NaF) PET.
Methods
Twenty-two patients underwent 18F-NaF PET within 22 days of an acute coronary syndrome. Optimal reconstruction parameters were determined in a subgroup of six patients. Motion-correction was performed on ECG-gated data of all patients with optimal reconstruction. Tracer uptake was quantified in culprit and reference lesions by computing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in diastolic, summed, and motion-corrected images.
Results
Reconstruction using 24 subsets, 4 iterations, point-spread-function modelling, time of flight, and 5-mm post-filtering provided the highest median SNR (31.5) compared to 4 iterations 0-mm (22.5), 8 iterations 0-mm (21.1), and 8 iterations 5-mm (25.6; all P < .05). Motion-correction improved SNR of culprit lesions (n = 33) (24.5[19.9-31.5]) compared to diastolic (15.7[12.4-18.1]; P < .001) and summed data (22.1[18.9-29.2]; P < .001). Motion-correction increased the SNR difference between culprit and reference lesions (10.9[6.3-12.6]) compared to diastolic (6.2[3.6-10.3]; P = .001) and summed data (7.1 [4.8-11.6]; P = .001).
Conclusions
The number of iterations and extent of post-filtering has marked effects on coronary 18F-NaF PET quantification. Cardiac motion-correction improves discrimination between culprit and reference lesions.