Performance comparison of two commercial BGO-based PET/CT scanners using NEMA NU 2-2001.
Combined positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) scanners play a major role in medicine for in vivo imaging in an increasing number of diseases in oncology, cardiology, neurology, and psychiatry. With the advent of short-lived radioisotopes other than 18F and newer scanners, there is a need to optimize radioisotope activity and acquisition protocols, as well as to compare scanner performances on an objective basis. The Discovery-LS (D-LS) was among the first clinical PET/CT scanners to be developed and has been extensively characterized with older National Electrical Manufacturer Association (NEMA) NU 2-1994 standards. At the time of publication of the latest version of the standards (NU 2-2001) that have been adapted for whole-body imaging under clinical conditions, more recent models from the same manufacturer, i.e., Discovery-ST (D-ST) and Discovery-STE (D-STE), were commercially available. We report on the full characterization both in the two- and three-dimensional acquisition mode of the D-LS according to latest NEMA NU 2-2001 standards (spatial resolution, sensitivity, count rate performance, accuracy of count losses, and random coincidence correction and image quality), as well as a detailed comparison with the newer D-ST widely used and whose characteristics are already published.
Bolard
Grégory
G
University Institute for Radiation Physics (IRA-DUMSC), University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne (CHUV), 1007 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Prior
John O
JO
Modolo
Luca
L
Delaloye
Angelika Bischof
AB
Kosinski
Marek
M
Wastiel
Claude
C
Malterre
Jérôme
J
Bulling
Shelley
S
Bochud
François
F
Verdun
Francis R
FR
D004560:Electricity; D006801:Humans; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D012015:Reference Standards; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed