Initial experience with a SiPM-based PET/CT scanner: influence of acquisition time on image quality
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: A newly introduced PET/CT scanner (Discovery Meaningful Insights-DMI, GE Healthcare) includes the silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) with time-of-flight (TOF) technology first used in the GE SIGNA PET/MRI. In this study, we investigated the impact of various acquisition times on image quality using this SiPM-based PET/CT. METHODS: We reviewed data from 58 participants with cancer who were scanned using the DMI PET/CT scanner. The administered dosages ranged 295.3-429.9 MBq (mean ± SD 356.3 ± 37.4) and imaging started at 71-142 min (mean ± SD 101.41 ± 17.52) after administration of the radiopharmaceutical. The patients' BMI ranged 19.79-46.16 (mean ± SD 26.55 ± 5.53). We retrospectively reconstructed the raw TOF data at 30, 60, 90, and 120 s/bed and at the standard image acquisition time per clinical protocol (180 or 210 s/bed depending on BMI). Each reconstruction was reviewed blindly by two nuclear medicine physicians and scored 1-5 (1-poor, 5-excellent quality). The liver signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was used as a quantitative measure of image quality. RESULTS: The average scores ± SD of the readers were 2.61 ± 0.83, 3.70 ± 0.92, 4.36 ± 0.82, 4.82 ± 0.39, and 4.91 ± 0.91 for the 30, 60, 90, and 120 s/bed and at standard acquisition time, respectively. Inter-reader agreement on image quality assessment was good, with a weighted kappa of 0.80 (95% CI 0.72-0.81). In the evaluation of the effects of time per bed acquisition on semi-quantitative measurements, we found that the only time point significantly different from the standard time were 30 and 60 s (both with P < 0.001). The effects of dose and BMI were not statistically significant (P = 0.195 and 0.098, respectively). There was a significant positive effect of time on SNR (P < 0.001), as well as a significant negative effect of weight (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that despite significant delays from injection to imaging (due to comparison with standard PET/CT) compared to standard clinical operations and even in a population with average BMI > 25, images can be acquired as fast as 90 s/bed using the SiPM PET/CT and still result in very good image quality (average score > 4).
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Systematic SUVmax increases of >5-10% have not typically been observed at acquisition times per bed position of >30-60 s, at least in SiPM-equipped systems and/or patients with BMI <25 kg/m2.
“However, systematic SUVmax increases of >5–10% have not typically been observed at acquisition times per bed position of >30–60s, at least during investigations of SiPM-equipped systems and/or patients with BMI <25 kg/m2 [79,81,82].”
From Influences on PET Quantification and Interpretation (2022) · cites this paper as [81]
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References 21 · Cited by 74
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- Authors
- Sonni, I., Baratto, L., Park, S., Hatami, N., Srinivas, S., Davidzon, G., Gambhir, S. S., & Iagaru, A.
- Affiliations
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Iagaru, Andrei
- ORCID
- Venue
- EJNMMI Physics
- Published
- 2018-04-18
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 9-9
- ISSN
- 2197-7364 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5904089
- OpenAlex
- W2801241905
- Cited by
- 74
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 8 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 6.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- EJNMMI Physics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- GE Healthcare
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Medical Imaging Techniques and Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Cardiac Imaging and Diagnostics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Radiation › Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies
- Keywords
- PET/CT, silicon photomultipliers, time-of-flight PET, acquisition time, image quality, image reconstruction, cancer patients, radiation dose, body mass index, reader agreement, semi-quantitative measurement
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