title: Spatio-temporal pharmacokinetic model based registration of 4D PET neuroimaging data.
abstract: In dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) neuroimaging studies, where scan durations often exceed 1h, registration of motion-corrupted dynamic PET images is necessary in order to maintain the integrity of the physiological, pharmacological, or biochemical information derived from the tracer kinetic analysis of the scan. In this work, we incorporate a pharmacokinetic model, which is traditionally used to analyse PET data following any registration, into the registration process itself in order to allow for a groupwise registration of the temporal time frames. The new method is shown to achieve smaller registration errors and improved kinetic parameter estimates on validation data sets when compared with image similarity based registration approaches. When applied to measured clinical data from 10 healthy subjects scanned with [(11)C]-(+)-PHNO (a dopamine D3/D2 receptor tracer), it reduces the intra-class variability on the receptor binding outcome measure, further supporting the improvements in registration accuracy. Our method incorporates a generic tracer kinetic model which makes it applicable to different PET radiotracers to remove motion artefacts and increase the integrity of dynamic PET studies.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, UK; Imanova Limited, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK. Electronic address: jieqing.jiao@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Jieqing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiao
authors.forename: Graham E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Searle
authors.forename: Andri C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Tziortzi
authors.forename: Cristian A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Salinas
authors.forename: Roger N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Gunn
authors.forename: Julia A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Schnabel
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism*; D002247:Carbon Isotopes / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods; D010078:Oxazines / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D050637:Receptors, Dopamine D3 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D013382:Subtraction Technique; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D010078:Oxazines; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D050637:Receptors, Dopamine D3; C042631:naxagolide
keywords: Motion correction; Neuroreceptor imaging; PET; Pharmacokinetic modelling; Spatio-temporal registration