A next-generation total-body PET/CT scanner can produce diagnostic-quality images in as little as one minute, according to research presented October 18 at the annual meeting of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) in Vienna.
Even the scanner’s fastest images were rated more highly on average than those from a standard PET/CT scanner, according to the study.
“A one-minute scan on this system gave us images that our readers rated more highly than the standard-of-care scans we perform every day,” said lead author Cameron Pain, MD, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia, in an EANM news release. “That was the striking finding: even when we cut the acquisition time by 90%, image quality exceeded current standard-of-care methods.”
In the study, 24 participants scheduled for oncological PET/CT received one of five radiotracers and underwent a standard-of-care scan on a conventional short-axial field-of-view (SA-FOV) PET/CT system immediately followed by a 10-minute scan on the long-axial field-of-view (LA-FOV) system (Omni Legend 128, GE HealthCare). The researchers then reconstructed images from the LA-FOV scan using just five, three, two and one minute of data.
Two nuclear medicine specialists who were unaware of the acquisition times graded the images on a five-point scale for overall diagnostic quality, sharpness and lesion conspicuity (how clearly lesions stand out from surrounding tissue) and image noise.
Subject administered F-18 FDG standard-of-care imaging followed by total-body PET imaging. Additional lesions are visible on total-body PET images for acquisition times as low as 1-minute.Cameron Pain, MD, and EANM
According to the results, mean image scores were in the good or excellent range at every acquisition time. Average diagnostic quality scores were 5.0 for the ten- and five-minute images, 4.9 for the three- and two-minute images and 4.5 for the one-minute images. By comparison, the conventional scanner scored 3.9 for diagnostic quality, with lower average scores than the LA-FOV system across all assessed categories and acquisition times.
“Total-body PET gives us choices we haven’t had before. We can use its sensitivity to scan patients faster, to lower the radiation dose and to see disease more clearly,” Pain said.
Ultimately, shorter scans also have the potential to make PET/CT more comfortable for patients, particularly those who are in pain or find it difficult to lie still, while also reducing image blurring caused by movement. In addition, they could help imaging departments scan more patients each day and reduce the amount of radiotracer administered, given their higher sensitivity.
Larger studies will be important to confirm that very short scans do not miss small or faint lesions and to determine how faster scanning affects workflow and patient experience in routine clinical practice, Pain noted.
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