Partial volume correction for improved PET quantification in18F-NaF imaging of atherosclerotic plaques.
Accurate quantification of plaque imaging using18F-NaF PET requires partial volume correction (PVC).



PVC of PET data was implemented by the use of a local projection (LP) method. LP-based PVC was evaluated with an image quality (NEMA) and with a thorax phantom with "plaque-type" lesions of 18-36 mL. The validated PVC method was then applied to a cohort of 17 patients, each with at least one plaque in the carotid or ascending aortic arteries. In total, 51 calcified (HU > 110) and 16 non-calcified plaque lesions (HU < 110) were analyzed. The lesion-to-background ratio (LBR) and the relative change of LBR (ΔLBR) were measured on PET.



Following PVC, LBR of the spheres (NEMA phantom) was within 10% of the original values. LBR of the thoracic lesions increased by 155% to 440% when the LP-PVC method was applied to the PET images. In patients, PVC increased the LBR in both calcified [mean = 78% (-8% to 227%)] and non-calcified plaques [mean = 41%, (-9%-104%)].



PVC helps to improve LBR of plaque-type lesions in both phantom studies and clinical patients. Better results were obtained when the PVC method was applied to images reconstructed with point spread function modeling.
Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, General Hospital Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20/4L, 1090, Vienna, Austria. jacobo.calgonzalez@meduniwien.ac.at.
Jacobo
J
Cal-Gonzalez
Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Xiang
X
Li
Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Daniel
D
Heber
Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, General Hospital Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20/4L, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
Ivo
I
Rausch
Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Stephen C
SC
Moore
European Institute for Molecular Imaging, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Klaus
K
Schäfers
Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Marcus
M
Hacker
Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, General Hospital Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20/4L, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
Thomas
T
Beyer
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D058226:Plaque, Atherosclerotic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012969:Sodium Fluoride
D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012969:Sodium Fluoride; C000615276:Fluorine-18
18F-fluoride; PET/CT imaging of atherosclerotic plaque; partial volume correction