Simultaneous emission and transmission (SET) scanning in neurological PET studies.
OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the impact of simultaneous emission and transmission (SET) measurements of quantification and noise in neurological PET studies.


METHODS
Bias in SET was measured as a function of emission count rate and used to predict distortion in simulated FDG tissue curves and its effect on model parameter estimates. Studies were performed on a brain phantom and a patient to verify predicted bias and examine the effect of SET on noise.


RESULTS
In static imaging, SET underestimated tracer concentration by approximately 2%. In kinetic studies, tracer concentration was overestimated initially and underestimated during the mid to late part of the study, but bias in measurement of glucose metabolic rate was < 5% by simulation and < 10% in the patient study. SET imaging takes 10% longer than the emission part of a conventional scan to achieve comparable statistics.


CONCLUSIONS
Accurate neurological PET studies can be performed with SET. The relatively small bias can be predicted and potentially corrected.
Meikle
S R
SR
PET Department, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, NSW, Australia.
Eberl
S
S
Hooper
P K
PK
Fulham
M J
MJ
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003847:Deoxyglucose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000379:methods*
D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D003847:Deoxyglucose