Quality Control And Quantitative Analysis In Positron Emission Tomography Imaging

Positron Emission Tomography is a new nuclear imaging technique developed at the remarkable rate in the recent years, which is widely used in clinical practice. Positron Emission Tomography consists of two types, the dedicated Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and the dual-head coincidence detection imaging (DHC). The main advantage of Positron Emission Tomography is to study in vivo pathology, physiology and metabolism function non-invasively. Furthermore, Positron Emission Tomography can also provide quantitative or semiquantitative analysis. For example, calculate the standard uptake value (SUV) which provide some information about cancer differentiation, tumor staging, treatment monitoring as well as disease-free survival and overall survival in oncology.As we well know that some factors may impair the accuracy of the results in quantitative analysis of PET and DHC, which include poor spatial resolution, the partial volume effect (PVE) and image noise. The partial volume effect makes radioactivity decreased in the hot area, as well as the SUV impaired.The aim of the thesis is to investigate the quality control and quantification of PET and DHC systematically. The thesis consists of four parts. In the first part the quantification of DHC was studied, and the method for calculation of SUV in DHC was proposed and evaluated in clinical study. The major factor which influences the quantitative accuracy of PET and DHC is the partial volume effect caused by the poor system resolution. In the second part of the thesis the spatial resolution of PET and DHC was fully reviewed and studied. Following the part two the partial volume effect was studied in more detail including the production of PVE, the effect of PVE on the image quality and the correction of PVE. Two approaches for PVE correction, one dimension correction and the maximum value correction were proposed, which have both theoretical and clinical values. Finally, the image noise of PET and DHC was investigated in the part four of the thesis. The result of the investigation was significantly benefit to analyzing and improving the Positron Emission Tomography image quality.The thesis is the first time to give the comprehensive and systematic study of quality control and quantification on Positron Emission Tomography imaging. Creative work were done in calculation of SUV with DHC and PVE correction, which are ranged in advanced level.