Impact of PET data driven respiratory motion correction and BSREM reconstruction of 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT for differentiating neuroendocrine tumors (NET) and intrapancreatic accessory spleens (IPAS)

Abstract To evaluate whether quantitative PET parameters of motion-corrected 68 Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT can differentiate between intrapancreatic accessory spleens (IPAS) and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET). A total 498 consecutive patients with tumors (NET) who underwent March 2017 July 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Subjects (n = 43, thereof 7 IPAS) pNET 9) included, resulting in a 45 scans. images reconstructed using ordered-subsets expectation maximization (OSEM) fully convergent iterative image reconstruction algorithm β-values 1000 (BSREM ). data-driven gating (DDG) technique (MOTIONFREE, GE Healthcare) was applied to extract respiratory triggers use them for motion correction within both reconstructions. among different samples compared non-parametric tests. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analyzed the ability IPAS pNETs. SUVmax able distinguish from IPAs BSREM reconstructions (p < 0.05). This result more reliable DDG-based 0.003) achieved OSEM For differentiating pNETs specificity 100%, ROC analysis yielded an AUC 0.742 (sensitivity 56%)/0.765 56%)/0.846 62%)/0.840 63%) 36.7/41.9/36.9/41.7 OSEM/BSREM /OSEM + DDG/BSREM DDG, respectively. DDG accurately spleen. Both lead significant SUV increase non-motion-corrected data.