a method for model-free partial volume correction in oncological pet模范自由部分体积校正的方法在肿瘤的宠物.pdfVIP

Hofheinz et al. EJNMMI Research 2012, 2:16 /content/2/1/16 ORIGINAL RESEARCH Open Access A method for model-free partial volume correction in oncological PET 1* 1 1 1,2 2 Frank Hofheinz , Jens Langner , Jan Petr , Bettina Beuthien-Baumann , Liane Oehme , ¨ 1 ¨ 1,2 ¨ 1,2 Jorg Steinbach , Jorg Kotzerke and Jorg van den Hoff Abstract Background: As is well known, limited spatial resolution leads to partial volume effects (PVE) and consequently to limited signal recovery. Determination of the mean activity concentration of a target structure is thus compromised even at target sizes much larger than the reconstructed spatial resolution. This leads to serious size-dependent underestimates of true signal intensity in hot spot imaging. For quantitative PET in general and in the context of therapy assessment in particular it is, therefore, mandatory to perform an adequate partial volume correction (PVC). The goal of our work was to develop and to validate a model-free PVC algorithm for hot spot imaging. Methods: The algorithm proceeds in two automated steps. Step 1: estimation of the actual object boundary with a threshold based method and determination of the total activity A measured within the enclosed volume V. Step 2: determination of the activity fraction B, which is measured outside the object due to the partial volume effect (spill-out). The PVE corrected mean value is then given by Cmean = (A+B)/V. For validation simulated tumours were used which were derived from real patient data (liver metastases of a colorectal carcinoma and head and neck cancer, respectively). The simulated tumours have characteristics (regarding