NEMA NU 2-2018 performance measurements of Biograph Vision Quadra PET/CT system

Ziel/Aim We evaluated the Biograph Vision Quadra (Siemens Healthineers) total-body PET/CT system according to the NEMA NU2-2018 standard for comparison with other PET/CT systems. The new PET/CT system builds on the technology of the SiPM-based Biograph Vision 600 (Siemens Healthineers) and has an axial field of view (AFOV) of 106 cm. This setup offers full coverage of a human torso together with a much higher imaging sensitivity.

Methodik/Methods Spatial resolution was measured with a Na-22 point source. Scatter fraction, noise equivalent count rate (NECR), sensitivity, correction accuracies, CT co-registration accuracy, image quality and time-of flight (TOF) resolution were measured with F-18 sources. Two image quality measurements were performed with foreground to background ratios of 4 to 1 and 8 to 1, both with TOF and PSF reconstruction (TrueX TOF). Image reconstruction used a maximum ring difference (MRD) of 85. For all other measurements, MRDs of 85 and 322 were used.

Ergebnisse/Results The radial, tangential and axial spatial resolutions were 3.3, 3.4 and 3.8 mm, as measured with MRD 85. Sensitivities in MRD 85 and MRD 322 modes were 83.4 cps/kBq and 176.0 cps/kBq, and the NECRs at peak were 1.641 kcps and 3.018 kcps, both at 28.3 kBq/ml. Scatter fraction at peak NECR was 36.5 % and 37.0 %, respectively. The TOF resolution was 225 ps for MRD 85 and 227 ps for MRD 322. Image contrast recovery was between 74.4 to 86.9 % for 4:1 and between 77.6 to 92.6 % for 8:1 contrast ratios.

Schlussfolgerungen/Conclusions The Biograph Vision Quadra PET/CT has similar spatial and time resolution compared to the Biograph Vision 600, which uses the same detector technology. On the other hand, it shows dramatically improved sensitivity and NECR. In particular, in MRD 322 mode, the sensitivity of the Vision Quadra compares to the 2 m long total body scanner uEXPLORER.

Publication History

Article published online:
08 April 2021