Evaluating and comparing the image quality and quantification accuracy of SiPM-PET/CT and PMT-PET/CT.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to evaluate the image quality and the quantification accuracy of Biograph Vision PET/CT scanner as a SiPM-PET in comparison to the conventional PMT-PET, Biograph mCT PET/CT scanner.

METHODS

This study consisted of a phantom study and a retrospective clinical analysis where patients underwent F-FDG PET/CT in both PET systems. The body phantom of the NEMA IEC with 10-37 mm diameter spheres were filled with an F-FDG solution. The root mean square error (RMSE) of SUV, the detectability of 10-mm sphere, NEC, the background variability (N) and the contrast-noise-ratio (Q/N) were calculated based on the phantom analysis. We also examined the quality of the acquired clinical images using the NEC, NEC, SNR, SUV and SUV.

RESULTS

In the phantom study on Vision scanner, RMSE was relatively lower when the iteration number was 2, 3 or 4. To satisfy a visual score of 1.5 and the reference range of Q/N, a 60-s or longer acquisition was required. Our clinical findings show that NEC averaged 17.4 ± 1.72 Mcounts/m in mCT and 29.1 ± 2.83 Mcounts/m in Vision. Furthermore, NEC averaged 0.29 ± 0.05 kcounts/cm in mCT and 0.53 ± 0.09 kcounts/cm in Vision, respectively, whereas SNR averaged 14.6 ± 3.77% in mCT and 21.3 ± 1.69% in Vision (P = 0.0156), respectively. Finally, SUV averaged 2.82 ± 0.28 and 2.55 ± 0.30, SUV ranged 1.6-17.6 and 1.9-22.9 in mCT and Vision, respectively.

CONCLUSION

SiPM-PET/CT provides superior image quality and quantification accuracy compared to PMT-PET/CT.