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Simultaneous 99mTc-MDP/123I-MIBG tumor imaging using SPECT-CT: phantom and constructed patient studies.

ABSTRACT: Authors' goal is to evaluate the performance of simultaneous (99m)Tc-MDP/(123)I-MIBG tumor imaging with fast Monte-Carlo (MC) based joint iterative reconstruction as compared to sequential (99m)Tc-MDP and (123)I-MIBG tumor imaging.Noise-free (99m)Tc and (123)I SPECT projections were acquired separately using an anthropomorphic torso phantom modified to include a fillable tube around the lungs to mimic ribs. Additionally, (99m)Tc and (123)I projections were acquired separately using a 1-cm spherical "tumor" placed at various distances from one detector. Tumor-present data were generated by adding tumor projections to the torso phantom data, which were scaled to the total counts in typical clinical studies. Twenty-five noise realizations were generated by adding Poisson noise to the projection data for each radionuclide. Dual-radionuclide data were synthesized by summing the (99m)Tc and (123)I projections. Image reconstruction was performed using: (1) SR-OSEM, ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) without scatter correction (SC) using single-radionuclide (SR) data; (2) SR-MC-OSEM, OSEM with a fast MC-based SC using SR data; (3) DR-OSEM, OSEM without SC using dual-radionuclide (DR) data; and (4) DR-MC-JOSEM, joint OSEM with a fast MC-based SC using DR data. Ten (99m)Tc-MDP and ten (123)I-MIBG data sets, which had tumors mathematically inserted, were also used to evaluate the performance of authors' approach. For the phantom study, relative bias and relative standard deviation of tumor uptake were computed for each tumor using the tumor uptake in the noise-free single-radionuclide images, which were reconstructed by SR-MC-OSEM, as the gold standard. For both the phantom and constructed patient studies, mean contrast and standard deviation of contrast were computed for each tumor for both the single- and dual-radionuclide images. Additionally, contrast recovery was computed as the ratio between mean contrast and the mean contrast for SR-MC-OSEM.For the phantom study, DR-MC-JOSEM yielded 2.7% on average relative bias of tumor uptake using the images, which were reconstructed from the noise-free SR data with SR-MC-OSEM, as the gold-standard. For both the phantom and constructed patient studies, DR-MC-JOSEM yielded 94.7% and 95.2% tumor contrast recovery on average using SR-MC-OSEM as the reference, in the phantom and constructed patient studies, respectively. DR-MC-JOSEM yielded comparable relative standard deviation of bias and standard deviation of contrast to SR-MC-OSEM.Simultaneous (99m)Tc-MDP/(123)I-MIBG tumor imaging using authors' dual-radionuclide reconstruction approach yielded comparable image quality to sequential (99m)Tc-MDP and (123)I-MIBG imaging. For patients who need to undergo both scans, authors' approach offers perfectly registered dual-tracer images under identical conditions without compromising image quality, and reduces the imaging cost while increasing patient throughput.

SUBMITTER: Rakvongthai Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3785531 | biostudies-other | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:A well-established approach for diagnostic imaging of osteomyelitis (OM), a bone infection, is simultaneous SPECT-CT of 99mTc sulfur colloid (SC) and 111In white blood cells (WBC). This method provides essentially perfect spatial registration of the tracers within anatomic sites of interest. Currently, diagnosis is based purely on a visual assessment-where relative discordance between 99mTc and 111In uptake in bone, i.e., high 111In and low 99mTc, suggests OM. To achieve more quantitative images, noise, scatter, and crosstalk between radionuclides must be addressed through reconstruction. Here the authors compare their Monte Carlo-based joint OSEM (MC-JOSEM) algorithm, which reconstructs both radionuclides simultaneously, to a more conventional triple-energy window-based reconstruction (TEW-OSEM), and to iterative reconstruction with no compensation for scatter (NC-OSEM).The authors created numerical phantoms of the foot and torso. Multiple bone-infection sites were modeled using high-count Monte Carlo simulation. Counts per voxel were then scaled to values appropriate for 111In WBC and 99mTc SC imaging. Ten independent noisy projection image sets were generated by drawing random Poisson deviates from these very low-noise images. Data were reconstructed using the two iterative scatter-compensation methods, TEW-OSEM and MC-JOSEM, as well as the uncorrected method (NC-OSEM). Mean counts in volumes of interest (VOIs) were used to evaluate the bias and precision of each method. Data were also acquired using a phantom, approximately the size of an adult ankle, consisting of regions representing infected and normal bone marrow, within a bone-like attenuator and surrounding soft tissue; each compartment contained a mixture of 111In and 99mTc. Low-noise data were acquired during multiple short scans over 29 h on a Siemens Symbia T6 SPECT-CT with medium-energy collimators. Pure 99mTc and 111In projection datasets were derived by fitting the acquired projections to the sum of 99mTc and 111In contributions, using the known half-lives. Uncontaminated data were scaled and recombined into six datasets with different activity ratios; ten Poisson noise realizations were then generated for each ratio. VOIs in each of the compartments were used to evaluate the bias and precision of each method with respect to reconstructions of uncontaminated datasets. In addition to the simulated and acquired phantom images, the authors reconstructed patient images with MC-JOSEM and TEW-OSEM. Patient reconstructions were assessed qualitatively for lesion contrast, spatial definition, and scatter.For all simulated and acquired infection phantoms, the root-mean squared-error of measured 99mTc activity was significantly improved with MC-JOSEM and TEW-OSEM in comparison to NC-OSEM reconstructions. While MC-JOSEM trended toward outperforming TEW-OSEM, the improvement was only found to be significant (p<0.001) for the acquired bone phantom in which a wide range of 111In∕99mTc concentration ratios were tested. In all cases, scatter correction did not significantly improve 111In quantitation.Compensation for scatter and crosstalk is useful for improving quality, bias, and precision of 99mTc activity estimates in simultaneous dual-radionuclide imaging of OM. The use of the more rigorous MC-based estimates provided marginal improvements over TEW. While the phantom results were encouraging, more subjects are needed to evaluate the usefulness of quantitative 111In∕99mTc SPECT-CT in the clinic.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Currently, there is no established non-invasive imaging approach to directly evaluate myocardial microcirculatory function in order to diagnose microvascular disease independent of co-existing epicardial disease. In this work, we developed a methodological framework for quantification of intramyocardial blood volume (IMBV) as a novel index of microcirculatory function with SPECT/CT imaging of 99mTc-labeled red blood cells (RBCs). METHODS:Dual-gated myocardial SPECT/CT equilibrium imaging of 99mTc-RBCs was performed on twelve canines under resting conditions. Five correction schemes were studied: cardiac gating with no other corrections (CG), CG with attenuation correction (CG + AC), CG + AC with scatter correction (CG + AC + SC), dual cardiorespiratory gating with AC + SC (DG + AC + SC), and DG + AC + SC with partial volume correction (DG + AC + SC + PVC). Quantification of IMBV using each approach was evaluated in comparison to those obtained from all corrections. The in vivo SPECT estimates of IMBV values were validated against those obtained from ex vivo microCT imaging of the casted hearts. RESULTS:The estimated IMBV with all corrections was 0.15 ± 0.03 for the end-diastolic phase and 0.11 ± 0.03 for the end-systolic phase. The cycle-dependent change in IMBV (?IMBV) with all corrections was 23.9 ± 8.6%. Schemes that applied no correction or partial correction resulted in significant over-estimation of IMBV and significant under-underestimation of ?IMBV. Estimates of IMBV and ?IMBV using all corrections were consistent with values reported in the literature using invasive techniques. In vivo SPECT estimates of IMBV strongly correlated (R2 ? 0.70) with ex vivo measures for the various correction schemes, while the fully corrected scheme yielded the smallest bias. CONCLUSIONS:Non-invasive quantification of IMBV is feasible using 99mTc-RBCs SPECT/CT imaging, however, requires full compensation of physical degradation factors.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Two novel methods of image reconstruction, xSPECT Quant (xQ) and xSPECT Bone (xB), that use an ordered subset conjugate gradient minimizer (OSCGM) for SPECT/CT reconstruction have been proposed. The present study compares the performance characteristics of xQ, xB, and conventional Flash3D (F3D) reconstruction using images derived from phantoms and patients. METHODS:A custom-designed body phantom for bone SPECT was scanned using a Symbia Intevo (Siemens Healthineers), and reconstructed xSPECT images were evaluated. The phantom experiments proceeded twice with different activity concentrations and sphere sizes. A phantom with 28-mm spheres containing a 99mTc-background and tumor-to-normal bone ratios (TBR) of 1, 2, 4, and 10 were generated, and convergence property against various TBR was evaluated across 96 iterations. A phantom with four spheres (13-, 17-, 22-, and 28-mm diameters), containing a 99mTc-background at TBR4, was also generated. The full width at half maximum of an imaged spinous process (10?mm), coefficients of variance (CV), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and recovery coefficients (RC) were evaluated after reconstructing images of a spine using Flash 3D (F3D), xQ, and xB. We retrospectively analyzed images from 20 patients with suspected bone metastases (male, n = 13) which were acquired using [99mTc]Tc-(H)MDP SPECT/CT, then CV and standardized uptake values (SUV) at the 4th vertebral body (L4) were compared after xQ and xB reconstruction in a clinical setup. RESULTS:Mean activity concentrations with various TBR converged according to increasing numbers of iterations. The spatial resolution of xB was considerably superior to xQ and F3D, and it approached almost the actual size regardless of the iteration numbers during reconstruction. The CV and RC were better for xQ and xB than for F3D. The CNR peaked at 24 iterations for xQ and 48 iterations for F3D and xB, respectively. The RC between xQ and xB significantly differed at lower numbers of iterations but were almost equivalent at higher numbers of iterations. The reconstructed xQ and xB images of the clinical patients showed a significant difference in the SUVmax and SUVpeak. CONCLUSIONS:The reconstructed xQ and xB images were more accurate than those reconstructed conventionally using F3D. The xB for bone SPECT imaging offered essentially unchanged spatial resolution even when the numbers of iterations did not converge. The xB reconstruction further enhanced SPECT image quality using CT data. Our findings provide important information for understanding the performance characteristics of the novel xQ and xB algorithms.

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Simultaneous 99mTc-MDP/123I-MIBG tumor imaging using SPECT-CT: phantom and constructed patient studies.

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