Analytical quantification of aortic valve 18F-sodium fluoride PET uptake

J Nucl Cardiol. 2020 Jun;27(3):962-972. doi: 10.1007/s12350-018-01542-6. Epub 2018 Nov 29.

Abstract

Background: Challenges to cardiac PET-CT include patient motion, prolonged image acquisition and a reduction of counts due to gating. We compared two analytical tools, FusionQuant and OsiriX, for quantification of gated cardiac 18F-sodium fluoride (18F-fluoride) PET-CT imaging.

Methods: Twenty-seven patients with aortic stenosis were included, 15 of whom underwent repeated imaging 4 weeks apart. Agreement between analytical tools and scan-rescan reproducibility was determined using the Bland-Altman method and Lin's concordance correlation coefficients (CCC).

Results: Image analysis was faster with FusionQuant [median time (IQR) 7:10 (6:40-8:20) minutes] compared with OsiriX [8:30 (8:00-10:10) minutes, p = .002]. Agreement of uptake measurements between programs was excellent, CCC = 0.972 (95% CI 0.949-0.995) for mean tissue-to-background ratio (TBRmean) and 0.981 (95% CI 0.965-0.997) for maximum tissue-to-background ratio (TBRmax). Mean noise decreased from 11.7% in the diastolic gate to 6.7% in motion-corrected images (p = .002); SNR increased from 25.41 to 41.13 (p = .0001). Aortic valve scan-rescan reproducibility for TBRmax was improved with FusionQuant using motion correction compared to OsiriX (error ± 36% vs ± 13%, p < .001) while reproducibility for TBRmean was similar (± 10% vs ± 8% p = .252).

Conclusion: 18F-fluoride PET quantification with FusionQuant and OsiriX is comparable. FusionQuant with motion correction offers advantages with respect to analysis time and reproducibility of TBRmax values.

Keywords: Positron emission tomography; cardiac motion; computed tomography; valvular disease.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Algorithms
  • Aortic Valve / diagnostic imaging*
  • Female
  • Fluorine Radioisotopes*
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Motion
  • Observer Variation
  • Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography / methods*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Signal-To-Noise Ratio
  • Sodium Fluoride*
  • Software
  • User-Computer Interface

Substances

  • Fluorine Radioisotopes
  • Sodium Fluoride
  • Fluorine-18