title: A 5D computational phantom for pharmacokinetic simulation studies in dynamic emission tomography.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dynamic image acquisition protocols are increasingly used in emission tomography for drug development and clinical research. As such, there is a need for computational phantoms to accurately describe both the spatial and temporal distribution of radiotracers, also accounting for periodic and non-periodic physiological processes occurring during data acquisition.
  
  
  METHODS
  A new 5D anthropomorphic digital phantom was developed based on a generic simulation platform, for accurate parametric imaging simulation studies in emission tomography. The phantom is based on high spatial and temporal information derived from real 4D MR data and a detailed multi-compartmental pharmacokinetic modelling simulator.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proposed phantom is comprised of three spatial and two temporal dimensions, including periodic physiological processes due to respiratory motion and non-periodic functional processes due to tracer kinetics. Example applications are shown in parametric [(18)F]FDG and [(15)O]H2O PET imaging, successfully generating realistic macro- and micro-parametric maps.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The envisaged applications of this digital phantom include the development and evaluation of motion correction and 4D image reconstruction algorithms in PET and SPECT, development of protocols and methods for tracer and drug development as well as new pharmacokinetic parameter estimation algorithms, amongst others. Although the simulation platform is primarily developed for generating dynamic phantoms for emission tomography studies, it can easily be extended to accommodate dynamic MR and CT imaging simulation protocols.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland; Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre, MAHSC, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. Electronic address: fotis.kotasidis@unige.ch.
authors.forename: Fotis A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Kotasidis
authors.affiliation: Division of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, King's Health Partners, St. Thomas' Hospital, London, UK; Division of Medical Physics, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Charalampos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tsoumpas
authors.affiliation: Division of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, King's Health Partners, St. Thomas' Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Polycarpou
authors.affiliation: Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland; Geneva Neuroscience Centre, Geneva University, Geneva, Switzerland; Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Habib
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zaidi
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055425:Respiratory-Gated Imaging Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals
keywords: MR; PET; Parametric imaging; Phantom; Pharmacokinetics; Respiratory motion; SPECT; Tomography