• Stephane Chauvie, Fabrizio Bergesio, Federica Fioroni, Marco Brambilla, Alberto Biggi, Annibale Versari, Luca Guerra, Giovanni Storto, Pellegrino Musto, Stefano Luminari, Maria G Cabras, Monica Balzarotti, Luigi Rigacci, Maurizio Martelli, Umberto Vitolo, Massimo Federico, and Andrea Gallamini.
• Santa Croce e Carle Hospital, Cuneo, Italy. Electronic address: chauvie.s@ospedale.cuneo.it.
• Phys Med. 2016 May 1; 32 (5): 651-6.

PurposeThe quantitative assessment of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans using standardized uptake value and derived parameters proved to be superior to traditional qualitative assessment in several retrospective or mono-centric prospective reports. Since different scanners give different quantitative readings, a program for clinical trial qualification (CTQ) is mandatory to guarantee a reliable and reproducible use of quantitative PET in prospective multi-centre clinical trials and in every-day clinical life.MethodsWe set up, under the auspices of Italian Foundation on Lymphoma (FIL), a CTQ program consisting of the PET/CT scan acquisition and analysis of (18)F and (68)Ge NEMA/IEC image quality phantoms for the reduction of inter-scanner variability. Variability was estimated on background activity concentration (BAC) and sphere to background ratio (SBR).ResultsThe use of a (68)Ge phantom allowed reducing the inter-scanner variability among different scanners from 74.0% to 20.5% in BAC and from 63.3% to 17.4% in SBR compared to using the (18)F phantom. The CTQ criteria were fulfilled at first round in 100% and 28% of PET scanners with (68)Ge and (18)F respectively.ConclusionsThe (68)Ge phantom proved a reliable tool for PET scanner qualification, able to significantly reduce the potential sources of error while increasing the reproducibility of PET derived quantitative parameter measurement.Copyright © 2016 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

24 keywords...

hide…