Dynamic 18F-FDG PET imaging of liver lesions: evaluation of a two-tissue compartment model with dual blood input function

Jingnan Wang,Barbara Katharina Geist,Li Huo,Fang Li,Yunwen Shao,Haiyan Ding,Marcus Hacker,Bowei Liu,Xuezhu Wang,Hui Zhang,Haitao Zhao,Xiang Li

doi:10.1186/s12880-021-00623-2

Abstract

BackgroundDynamic PET with kinetic modeling was reported to be potentially helpful in the assessment of hepatic malignancy. In this study, a kinetic modeling analysis was performed on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) from dynamic FDG positron emission tomography/computer tomography (PET/CT) scans.MethodsA reversible two-tissue compartment model with dual blood input function, which takes into consideration the blood supply from both hepatic artery and portal vein, was used for accurate kinetic modeling of liver dynamic 18F-FDG PET imaging. The blood input functions were directly measured as the mean values over the VOIs on descending aorta and portal vein respectively. And the contribution of hepatic artery to the blood input function was optimization-derived in the process of model fitting. The kinetic model was evaluated using dynamic PET data acquired on 24 patients with identified hepatobiliary malignancy. 38 HCC or ICC identified lesions and 24 healthy liver regions were analyzed.ResultsResults showed significant differences in kinetic parameters {K}_{1}-{k}_{4}, blood supplying fraction {f}_{A}, and metabolic rate constant {K}_{i} between malignant lesions and healthy liver tissue. And significant differences were also observed in {K}_{1}, {k}_{3}, {f}_{A} and {K}_{i} between HCC and ICC lesions. Further investigations of the effect of SUV measurements on the derived kinetic parameters were conducted. And results showed comparable effectiveness of the kinetic modeling using either SUVmean or SUVmax measurements.ConclusionsDynamic 18F-FDG PET imaging with optimization-derived hepatic artery blood supply fraction dual-blood input function kinetic modeling can effectively distinguish malignant lesions from healthy liver tissue, as well as HCC and ICC lesions.

Highlights

Dynamic 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) with kinetic modeling was reported to be potentially helpful in the assessment of hepatic malignancy
Dynamic PET with kinetic modeling provides an overall view of tracer behavior and quantitative kinetic parameters can be derived to characterize the perfusion and metabolism process [4]
A reversible ( k4 ≥ 0 ) two-tissue compartment model with dual-blood input function (DBIF), which takes into consideration the blood supply from both the hepatic artery (HA) and the portal vein (PV), was used for accurate kinetic modeling of liver dynamic 18F-FDG PET imaging

Summary

Introduction

Dynamic PET with kinetic modeling was reported to be potentially helpful in the assessment of hepatic malignancy. A kinetic modeling analysis was performed on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) from dynamic FDG positron emission tomography/computer tomography (PET/CT) scans. High correlations between the glycolytic enzyme activities and kinetic parameters were reported in previous studies. These kinetic parameters have the potential to serve as an important complement to the commonly used standard uptake values (SUVs) measured in static PET imaging [5, 6]. Previous studies have reported that dynamic PET with kinetic modeling could be used for differential diagnosing, pathological grading and therapeutic evaluating in hepatic malignancy [7, 8]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion