Discussion of PET Workshop Reports, Including Recommendations of PET Data Analysis Working Group

Analysis of Dynamic PET Data

In dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) an artery sampling is needed for assessment and validation of parameters in kinetic models. The sampling can be uncomfortable and painful for the patient and technically demanding for the personnel performing the sampling. Noninvasive estimation of the artery time activity curve (TAC) is thus very useful, since the sampling then can be avoided. Meth...

Basic PET Data Analysis Techniques

Semiautomated analysis of small-animal PET data.

UNLABELLED The objective of the work reported here was to develop and test automated methods to calculate biodistribution of PET tracers using small-animal PET images. METHODS After developing software that uses visually distinguishable organs and other landmarks on a scan to semiautomatically coregister a digital mouse phantom with a small-animal PET scan, we elastically transformed the phan...

AAPM Task Group 108: PET and PET/CT shielding requirements.

The shielding of positron emission tomography (PET) and PET/CT (computed tomography) facilities presents special challenges. The 0.511 MeV annihilation photons associated with positron decay are much higher energy than other diagnostic radiations. As a result, barrier shielding may be required in floors and ceilings as well as adjacent walls. Since the patient becomes the radioactive source aft...

PET kinetic analysis: wavelet denoising of dynamic PET data with application to parametric imaging.

Physiological functions (e.g., cerebral blood flow, glucose metabolism, and neuroreceptor binding) can be investigated as parameters estimated by kinetic modeling using dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) images. Imaging of these physiological parameters, called parametric imaging, can locate the regional distribution of functionalities. However, the most serious technical issue affectin...