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Brain imaging of sequential acquisition using a flexible PET scanner and 3-T MRI: quantitative and qualitative assessment

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Abstract

Objective

A mobile PET scanner termed flexible PET (fxPET) has been designed to fit existing MRI systems. The purpose of this study was to assess brain imaging with fxPET combined with 3-T MRI in comparison with conventional PET (cPET)/CT.

Methods

In this prospective study, 29 subjects with no visible lesions except for mild leukoaraiosis on whole brain imaging underwent 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose ([18F]FDG) cPET/CT followed by fxPET and MRI. The registration differences between fxPET and MRI and between cPET and CT were compared by measuring spatial coordinates. Three-dimensional magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition gradient-echo T1-weighted imaging (T1WI) was acquired. We applied two methods of attenuation correction to the fxPET images: MR-based attenuation correction, which yielded fxPETMRAC; and CT-based attenuation correction, which yielded fxPETCTAC. The three PET datasets were co-registered to the T1WI. Following subcortical segmentation and cortical parcellation, volumes of interest were placed in each PET image to assess physiological accumulation in the brain. SUVmean was obtained and compared between the three datasets. We also visually evaluated image distortion and clarity of fxPETMRAC.

Results

Mean misregistration of fxPET/MRI was < 3 mm for each margin. Mean registration differences were significantly larger for fxPET/MRI than for cPET/CT except for the superior margin. There were high correlations between the three PET datasets regarding SUVmean. On visual evaluation of image quality, the grade of distortion was comparable between fxPETMRAC and cPET, and the grade of clarity was acceptable but inferior for fxPETMRAC compared with cPET.

Conclusions

fxPET could successfully determine physiological [18F]FDG uptake; however, improved image clarity is desirable. In this study, fxPET/MRI at 3-T was feasible for brain imaging.

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Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Tetsuya Kobayashi, Junichi Ohi, and Keishi Kitamura from Shimadzu Corporation for their technical advice. We also thank Taisuke Nagao, Masaaki Kajisako, and Shigeto Kawase for their technical support.

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 22K07746, 21K15826, 21K20834, and 21K15623.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 54 Shogoin Kawahara-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8507, Japan

    Satoshi Nakajima, Yasutaka Fushimi, Takuya Hinoda, Akihiko Sakata, Sachi Okuchi, Takayoshi Ishimori & Yuji Nakamoto

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Yoshiki Arakawa

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  1. Satoshi Nakajima
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Correspondence to Yasutaka Fushimi.

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Conflict of interest

Yuji Nakamoto obtained financial support from Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan. This prototype mobile PET scanner was developed by the company and was provided free of charge for use in this study. The other authors have no conflicts of interest directly relevant to the content of this article.

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Nakajima, S., Fushimi, Y., Hinoda, T. et al. Brain imaging of sequential acquisition using a flexible PET scanner and 3-T MRI: quantitative and qualitative assessment. Ann Nucl Med 37, 209–218 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12149-022-01817-6

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