title: A randomized, double-blind, crossover comparison of novel continuous bed motion versus traditional bed position whole-body PET/CT imaging.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Continuous bed motion has recently been introduced for whole-body PET/CT, and represents a paradigm shift towards individualized and flexible acquisition without the limitations of bed position-based planning. Increased patient comfort due to lack of abrupt table position changes may be another albeit still unproven advantage. For robust clinical implementation, image quality and quantitative accuracy should at least be equal to the prior standard of bed position-based step-and-shoot imaging.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included 68 consecutive patients referred for whole-body PET/CT for various malignancies. The patients underwent traditional step-and-shoot and novel continuous bed motion acquisition in the same session in a randomized crossover design. The patients and two independent observers were blinded to the sequence of scan techniques. Patient comfort/satisfaction was examined using a standardized questionnaire. SUVs were compared for reference tissue (liver, muscle) and tumour lesions. PET image quality and misalignment with CT images were evaluated on a scale of 1 - 4.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients preferred continuous bed motion over step-and-shoot (P = 0.0001). It was considered to be more relaxing (38 % vs. 8 %), quieter (34 % vs. 8 %), and more fluid (64 % vs. 8 %). Image quality, SUV and CT misalignment did not differ between the techniques. Continuous bed motion resulted in better end-plane image quality (P < 0.0001). Regardless of the technique, second examinations had significantly higher tumour lesion SUVmax values (P = 0.0002), and a higher CT misalignment score (P = 0.0017).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Oncological PET/CT with continuous bed motion enhances patient comfort and is associated with image quality at least comparable to that with traditional bed position-based step-and-shoot acquisition.qq.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.|Department of Nuclear Medicine, Charité, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Imke
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schatka
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Desiree
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Weiberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reichelt
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Owsianski-Hille
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Derlin
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Berding
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany. bengel.frank@mh-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Frank M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Bengel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001513:Beds / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009038:Motion; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D056888:Patient Positioning / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D051598:Whole Body Imaging / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Continuous bed motion; Hybrid imaging; PET/CT; Whole-body imaging