Download PDF
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · World J Nucl Med 2016; 15(03): 167-172
DOI: 10.4103/1450-1147.174702
Original article

Quantitative assessment of radionuclide uptake and positron emission tomography-computed tomography image contrast

Hasford Francis
1   Department of Medical Physics, School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra
2   Medical Radiation Physics Centre, Radiological and Medical Sciences Research Institute, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Accra, Ghana
3   Department of Nuclear Medicine, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
,
John Amuasi
1   Department of Medical Physics, School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra
,
Kyere Kwame
1   Department of Medical Physics, School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra
,
Mboyo Vangu
3   Department of Nuclear Medicine, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
› Author Affiliations
› Further Information
Also available at
  PDF Download Permissions and Reprints

Radionuclide uptake and contrast for positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) images have been assessed in this study using NEMA image quality phantom filled with background activity concentration of 5.3 kBq/mL fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG). Spheres in the phantom were filled in turns with water to mimic cold lesions and FDG of higher activity concentrations to mimic tumor sites. Transaxial image slices were acquired on the PET-CT system and used for the evaluation of mean standard uptake value (SUV mean ) and contrasts for varying sphere sizes at different activity concentrations of 10.6 kBq/mL, 21.2 kBq/mL, and 42.4 kBq/mL. For spheres of same sizes, SUV mean increased with increase in activity concentration. SUV mean was increased by 80.6%, 83.5%, 63.2%, 87.4%, and 63.2% when activity concentrations of spheres with a diameter of 1.3 cm, 1.7 cm, 2.2 cm, 2.8 cm, and 3.7 cm, respectively, were increased from 10.6 kBq/mL to 42.4 kBq/mL. Average percentage contrast between cold spheres (cold lesions) and background activity concentration was estimated to be 89.96% for the spheres. Average contrast for the spheres containing 10.6 kBq/mL, 21.2 kBq/mL, and 42.4 kBq/mL were found to be 110.92%, 134.48%, and 150.52%, respectively. The average background contrast variability was estimated to be 2.97% at 95% confidence interval (P < 0.05).

Keywords

Hot lesion - image contrast - image quality phantom - radionuclide activity


Publication History

Article published online:
19 May 2022

© 2016. Sociedade Brasileira de Neurocirurgia. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commecial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
A-12, 2nd Floor, Sector 2, Noida-201301 UP, India