Combined 18F-FDG-PET/CT imaging of the head and neck. An approach to metal artifact correction.
PET/CT imaging is particularly promising for head/neck malignancies, but dental implants lead to biased CT attenuation and PET activity values following CT-based attenuation correction (CT-AC).


OBJECTIVE
Here, we implement a metal artifact correction procedure (MAR) as part of the CT-AC for PET/CT imaging.


RESULTS
Phantom studies indicate a maximum quantitative bias in CT and PET of 1000 HU and 30 %, which is reduced to 230 HU and 6 %, respectively following MAR. These results were verified in selected patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Artifacts and biases from dental implants can be reduced in PET/CT imaging by applying a simple MAR as part of the CT-AC.
Schäfers
K P
KP
Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 33, 48149 Münster, Germany. schafkl@uni-muenster.de
Raupach
R
R
Beyer
T
T
D016477:Artifacts; D015921:Dental Implants; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008334:Mandible / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008437:Maxilla / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D015921:Dental Implants; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18