title: A partial volume effect correction tailored for 18F-FDG-PET oncological studies.
abstract: We have developed, optimized, and validated a method for partial volume effect (PVE) correction of oncological lesions in positron emission tomography (PET) clinical studies, based on recovery coefficients (RC) and on PET measurements of lesion-to-background ratio (L/B m) and of lesion metabolic volume. An operator-independent technique, based on an optimised threshold of the maximum lesion uptake, allows to define an isocontour around the lesion on PET images in order to measure both lesion radioactivity uptake and lesion metabolic volume. RC are experimentally derived from PET measurements of hot spheres in hot background, miming oncological lesions. RC were obtained as a function of PET measured sphere-to-background ratio and PET measured sphere metabolic volume, both resulting from the threshold-isocontour technique. PVE correction of lesions of a diameter ranging from 10 mm to 40 mm and for measured L/B m from 2 to 30 was performed using measured RC curves tailored at answering the need to quantify a large variety of real oncological lesions by means of PET. Validation of the PVE correction method resulted to be accurate (>89%) in clinical realistic conditions for lesion diameter > 1 cm, recovering >76% of radioactivity for lesion diameter < 1 cm. Results from patient studies showed that the proposed PVE correction method is suitable and feasible and has an impact on a clinical environment.
authors.affiliation: IBFM-CNR, Via F.lli Cervi 93, 20090 Segrate, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gallivanone
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Canevari
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gianolli
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Salvatore
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Della Rosa
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Gilardi
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Castiglioni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D011859:Radiography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18