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Performance Evaluation of a Dedicated Preclinical PET/CT System for the Assessment of Mineralization Process in a Mouse Model of Atherosclerosis

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of positron emission tomography/X-ray computed tomography (PET/CT) acquisition and reconstruction parameters on the assessment of mineralization process in a mouse model of atherosclerosis.

Procedures

All experiments were performed on a dedicated preclinical PET/CT system. CT was evaluated using five acquisition configurations using both a tungsten wire phantom for in-plane resolution assessment and a bar pattern phantom for cross-plane resolution. Furthermore, the radiation dose of these acquisition configurations was calculated. The PET system was assessed using longitudinal line sources to determine the optimal reconstruction parameters by measuring central resolution and its coefficient of variation. An in vivo PET study was performed using uremic ApoE−/−, non-uremic ApoE−/−, and control mice to evaluate optimal PET reconstruction parameters for the detection of sodium [18F]fluoride (Na[18F]F) aortic uptake and for quantitative measurement of Na[18F]F bone influx (Ki) with a Patlak analysis.

Results

For CT, the use of 1 × 1 and 2 × 2 binning detector mode increased both in-plane and cross-plane resolution. However, resolution improvement (163 to 62 μm for in-plane resolution) was associated with an important radiation dose increase (1.67 to 32.78 Gy). With PET, 3D-ordered subset expectation maximization (3D-OSEM) algorithm increased the central resolution compared to filtered back projection (1.42 ± 0.35 mm vs. 1.91 ± 0.08, p < 0.001). The use of 3D-OSEM with eight iterations and a zoom factor 2 yielded optimal PET resolution for preclinical study (FWHM = 0.98 mm). These PET reconstruction parameters allowed the detection of Na[18F]F aortic uptake in 3/14 ApoE−/− mice and demonstrated a decreased Ki in uremic ApoE−/− compared to non-uremic ApoE−/− and control mice (p < 0.006).

Conclusions

Optimizing reconstruction parameters significantly impacted on the assessment of mineralization process in a preclinical model of accelerated atherosclerosis using Na[18F]F PET. In addition, improving the CT resolution was associated with a dramatic radiation dose increase.

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Acknowledgments

This work was conducted as part of the FHU REMOD-VHF project and supported by the French Government, managed by the National Research Agency (ANR) under the program “Investissements d’avenir” with the reference ANR-16-RHUS-0003. The authors want to thank Sebastien Hapdey, PhD, for reviewing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Normandie Univ, UNICAEN, EA 4650, Cyceron, 14000, Caen, France

    Guillaume Rucher, Lucie Cameliere, Jihene Fendri, Kevin Dupont, Ludovic Berger & Alain Manrique

  2. Chirurgie Vasculaire, CHU de Caen, Avenue de la Côte de Nacre, 14000, Caen, France

    Lucie Cameliere, Jihene Fendri & Ludovic Berger

  3. Normandie Univ, UNICAEN, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, 14000, Caen, France

    Ahmed Abbas

  4. Inserm UMR-1088, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Centre Universitaire de Recherche en Santé (CURS), 80025, Amiens, France

    Said Kamel

  5. CNRS, UMS-3048, GIP Cyceron, Campus Jules Horowitz, 14000, Caen, France

    Nicolas Delcroix

  6. Esprimed SAS, 1 Mail du professeur Georges Mathé, 94800, Villejuif, France

    Axel Dupont

  7. Médecine Nucléaire, CHU de Caen, Avenue de la Côte de Nacre, 14000, Caen, France

    Alain Manrique

  8. GIP Cyceron, Campus Jules Horowitz, Boulevard Henri Becquerel, BP 5229, 14074, Caen, France

    Alain Manrique

Authors
  1. Guillaume Rucher
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  2. Lucie Cameliere
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  3. Jihene Fendri
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  4. Ahmed Abbas
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  5. Kevin Dupont
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  6. Said Kamel
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  7. Nicolas Delcroix
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  8. Axel Dupont
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  9. Ludovic Berger
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  10. Alain Manrique
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alain Manrique.

Ethics declarations

The institutional animal ethics committee approved the animal experiments (#3979).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Rucher, G., Cameliere, L., Fendri, J. et al. Performance Evaluation of a Dedicated Preclinical PET/CT System for the Assessment of Mineralization Process in a Mouse Model of Atherosclerosis. Mol Imaging Biol 20, 984–992 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-018-1202-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-018-1202-2

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