title: Automated striatal uptake analysis of ¹⁸F-FDOPA PET images applied to Parkinson's disease patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  6-[(18)F]Fluoro-L: -DOPA (FDOPA) is a radiopharmaceutical valuable for assessing the presynaptic dopaminergic function when used with positron emission tomography (PET). More specifically, the striatal-to-occipital ratio (SOR) of FDOPA uptake images has been extensively used as a quantitative parameter in these PET studies. Our aim was to develop an easy, automated method capable of performing objective analysis of SOR in FDOPA PET images of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Brain images from FDOPA PET studies of 21 patients with PD and 6 healthy subjects were included in our automated striatal analyses. Images of each individual were spatially normalized into an FDOPA template. Subsequently, the image slice with the highest level of basal ganglia activity was chosen among the series of normalized images. Also, the immediate preceding and following slices of the chosen image were then selected. Finally, the summation of these three images was used to quantify and calculate the SOR values. The results obtained by automated analysis were compared with manual analysis by a trained and experienced image processing technologist.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The SOR values obtained from the automated analysis had a good agreement and high correlation with manual analysis. The differences in caudate, putamen, and striatum were -0.023, -0.029, and -0.025, respectively; correlation coefficients 0.961, 0.957, and 0.972, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have successfully developed a method for automated striatal uptake analysis of FDOPA PET images. There was no significant difference between the SOR values obtained from this method and using manual analysis. Yet it is an unbiased time-saving and cost-effective program and easy to implement on a personal computer.
authors: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien 97401, Taiwan.
authors: I-Cheng
authors: IC
authors: Chang
authors: Kun-Han
authors: KH
authors: Lue
authors: Hung-Jen
authors: HJ
authors: Hsieh
authors: Shu-Hsin
authors: SH
authors: Liu
authors: Chih-Hao K
authors: CH
authors: Kao
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D001692:Biological Transport; D004295:Dihydroxyphenylalanine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D017072:Neostriatum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism*; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: C043437:fluorodopa F 18; D004295:Dihydroxyphenylalanine