An Assessment of the Accuracy of 3 Dimensional Acquisition in F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose Brain PET Imaging

Lee, Jeong Rim; Choi, Yong; Kim, Sang Eun; Lee, Kyung Han; Kim, Byung Tae; Choi, Chang Woon; Lim, Sang Moo; Hong, Seong Wun

Abstract

PURPOSE: To assess the quantitative accuracy and the clinical utility of 3D volumetric PET imaging with FDG in brain studies, 24 patients with various neurological disorders were studied.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Each patient was injected with 370 MBq of 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose. After a 30 min uptake period, the patients were imaged for 30 min in 2 dimensional acquisition (2D) and subsequently for 10 min in 3 dimensional acquisition imaging (3D) using a GE AdvanceTM PET system. The scatter corrected 3D (3D SC) and non scatter-corrected 3D images were compared with 2D images by applying ROIs on gray and white matter, lesion and contralateral normal areas. Measured and calculated attenuation correction methods for emission images were compared to get the maximum advantage of high sensitivity of 3D acquisition.
RESULTS
When normalized to the contrast of 2D images, the contrasts of gray to white matter were 0.75+/-0.13 (3D) and 0.95+/-0.12 (3D SC). The contrasts of normal area to lesion were 0.83+/-0.05 (3D) and 0.96+/-0.05 (3D SC). Three nuclear medicine physicians judged 3D SC images to be superior to the 2D with regards to resolution and noise. Regional counts of calculated attenuation correction was not significantly different to that of measured attenuation correction.
CONCLUSION
: 3D PET images with the scatter correction in FDG brain studies provide quantitatively and qualitatively similar images to 2D and can be utilized in a routine clinical setting to reduce scanning time and patient motion artifacts.