Analysis of the influence of 111In on 90Y-bremsstrahlung SPECT based on Monte Carlo simulation.

Abstract

90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan (Zevalin) which is used for the treatment of malignant lymphomas can be used for SPECT imaging based on bremsstrahlung from 90Y beta particles. However, gamma rays emitted by 111In, which is administered to evaluate the indication for the treatment, contaminate the 90Y bremsstrahlung images. Our objective is to investigate the influence of 111In on the 90Y SPECT images using Monte Carlo simulation. We used an in-house developed simulation code for the Monte Carlo simulation of electrons and photons (MCEP). Two hot spheres with diameters of 40mm were put in an elliptical phantom. Both spheres ("sphere 1" and "sphere 2") were filled with 90Y and 111In mixed solutions. The activities of 90Y in sphere 1 and sphere 2 were 241 and 394kBq/mL, respectively, and the ones of 111In were 8.14 and 13.3kBq/mL, respectively. The background activity of 90Y was 38.6kBq/mL, whereas that of 111In was 1.30kBq/mL; moreover, the acquisition time was 30min. Two energy windows were used: one is 90-190keV included the 111In photopeak; the other is 90-160keV. To evaluate the quality of the SPECT images, the contrast recovery coefficient (CRC) and the constant noise ratio (CNR) of the SPECT images were derived. For the energy window between 90 and 160keV, the 111In count was 74% of the total. In that case, the CRC values were 30.1 and 30.7% for "sphere 1" and "sphere 2", respectively, whereas the CNR values were 6.8 and 12.1, respectively. For the energy window between 90 and 190keV, the 111In count reached 85% of the total count. The CRC and CNR values were 38.6 and 40.0% and 10.6 and 19.4, respectively. Our simulation study revealed that the cross talk between 111In and 90Y in SPECT imaging is rather serious. Even for the energy window excluding the 111In photopeak, the count ratio of 90Y was less than 30% of the total. However, the influence of 111In on 90Y-SPECT imaging cannot be ignored, and the count ratio because of 111In is important to estimate the density of 90Y.