title: The reproducibility of time-of-flight PET and conventional PET for the quantification of myocardial blood flow and coronary flow reserve with (13)N-ammonia.
abstract: This study aimed to validate the reproducibility of quantitative analysis using time-of-flight (TOF) and conventional PET with (13)N-ammonia ((13)N-NH3).
  
  
  
  Phantom images were reconstructed with and without TOF, and recovery coefficients (RCs) and the percent contrast of each sphere over the percent background variability were assessed. In the clinical study, 21 subjects underwent dynamic (13)N-NH3 PET scanning under stress and rest conditions. The dynamic acquisition images and intra- and inter-observer reproducibility of myocardial blood flow (MBF) and coronary flow reserve (CFR) were compared between reconstructions (with and without TOF). In the phantom study, RCs and the percent contrast of each sphere over the percent background variability was improved with TOF. In the clinical study, the noise of blood pool and myocardial images with TOF was less than that without TOF. Territorial and global intra- and inter-observer reproducibility of MBF and CFR values was excellent. Although segmental intra- and inter-observer reproducibility was excellent, there were larger variations in apex and the segment near the right ventricle (RV) without TOF. These variations became inconspicuous with TOF.
  
  
  
  Visual image quality, RCs, and percent contrast over percent background variability with TOF were better than that without TOF. Excellent correlations and good agreements in quantitative values were observed. TOF improved the variation of segmental values.
authors.affiliation: Department of Quantum Medical Technology, Kanazawa University, 5-11-80 Kodatsuno, Kanazawa, 920-0942, Ishikawa, Japan. msuda@nms.ac.jp.|Clinical Imaging Center for Healthcare, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. msuda@nms.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Masaya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suda
authors.affiliation: Department of Quantum Medical Technology, Kanazawa University, 5-11-80 Kodatsuno, Kanazawa, 920-0942, Ishikawa, Japan. onoguchi@staff.kanazawa-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Masahisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Onoguchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tomiyama
authors.affiliation: Clinical Imaging Center for Healthcare, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishihara
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoto
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Clinical Imaging Center for Healthcare, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.affiliation: Kyoto College of Medical Science, Nantan, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Shin-Ichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumita
mesh_terms: D000641:Ammonia / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055414:Myocardial Perfusion Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D009590:Nitrogen Radioisotopes / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D015588:Observer Variation; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D009590:Nitrogen Radioisotopes; C000615247:Nitrogen-13; D000641:Ammonia
keywords: 13N-ammonia (13N-NH3); Myocardial blood flow (MBF); coronary flow reserve (CFR); positron emission tomography (PET); time-of-flight (TOF)