STRATEGIES FOR CLINICAL ONCOLOGY IMAGING WITH 3D PET

描述(改编自申请人摘要)：申请人建议 开发、实施和评估将显著改进的算法 临床PET肿瘤成像的图像质量，DIN特别适用于 我们机构正在开发双PET/CT扫描仪。动机 因为这项工作源于正电子发射的独特敏感性 断层扫描(PET)检测与异常相关的示踪剂摄取增加 CT或MRI显示结构异常前的肿瘤代谢 变得显而易见。这种能力正越来越多地被用于 通过执行以下操作来识别远离原发肿瘤部位的疾病 全身扫描，病人的病床被步入扫描仪。 然而，PET肿瘤学成像的诊断作用通常局限于 实践中示踪剂摄取量低，数据收集率低，导致 统计噪声水平较高的图像。全身扫描，输入 特别是，被限制在每个床位的较短成像时间 以维持患者可接受的总扫描持续时间 患有严重疾病，导致统计噪声增加和 诊断效用的进一步下降。申请人表示， 这些对图像质量的限制可以通过利用 两个因素：使用更高灵敏度的体积成像(3D成像)来 提高扫描仪的固有灵敏度，并使用真正的3-D统计 减少噪声传播并包含先验信息的重建方法 有关图像平滑程度的信息。此外，申请人还拥有 包括新版本中准确注册的CT信息的机会 PET/CT扫描仪控制局部平滑信息进一步提高 图像质量。3-D的发展面临着一些具有挑战性的问题 统计重建方法，并在纳入CT数据。这个 在这项工作中提出的解决方案将通过模拟进行初步评估 和模体研究，以及随后来自当前的临床数据 宠物肿瘤学计划，使用观察者研究和活检结果。这 降低图像噪声以提高识别率的总体方法 需要体内的良性和恶性病变才能充分实现 PET肿瘤学成像的潜力及其对患者的最大影响 管理层。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from Applicant's Abstract): The applicants proposed to develop, implement, and evaluate algorithms that will significantly improve image quality for clinical PET oncology imaging, an din particular for a dual PET/CT scanner under development at our institution. The motivation for this work arises from the unique sensitivity of positron emission tomography (PET) to detect increased tracer uptake associated with abnormal tumor metabolism before structural abnormalities demonstrated by CT or MRI become apparent. This ability is being increasingly used in the identification of disease remote from the primary tumor site by performing whole body scanning, where the patient bed is stepped through the scanner. The diagnostic utility of PET oncology imaging, however, is often limited in practice by low tracer uptake and low data collection rates, resulting in images with high levels of statistical noise. Whole body scanning, in particular, is constrained to short imaging times at each bed position in order to maintain a total scan duration that is acceptable to patients suffering from serious disease, leading to increased statistical noise and further degradation in diagnostic utility. The applicants suggest that these limitations on image quality can be overcome by taking advantage of two factors: the use of higher sensitivity volume-imaging (3-D imaging) to increase intrinsic scanner sensitivity, and the use of true 3-D statistical reconstruction methods that reduce noise propagation and include a priori information on image smoothness. In addition, the applicants have the opportunity to include accurately registered CT information from the new PET/CT scanner to control the local smoothing information to further improve image quality. There are challenging problems in the development of 3-D statistical reconstruction methods and in the incorporation of CT data. The solutions proposed in this work will initially be evaluated with simulation and phantom studies, and subsequently with clinical data from the current PET oncology program, using observer studies and biopsy results. This overall approach of reducing image noise to improve the discrimination of benign and malignant lesions within the body is needed to realize the full potential of PET oncology imaging and maximized its impact on patient management.