Human amyloid and FDG PET imaging with a novel dedicated Neuropet scanner

Abstract

Human amyloid PET imaging agents, particularly 18F-labeled agents which allow distribution and potentially widespread use, are rapidly becoming more validated and available. In this context, dedicated instrumentation in support of human PET amyloid imaging has the potential to provide several benefits. Specifically, dedicated instrumentation can provide performance meeting or exceeding that of general-purpose PET scanners, at lower dose to patient and staff, with greatly lessened site requirements, and at a considerably lower total cost of ownership. We have developed and manufacture a commercial, compact, dedicated 3D PET brain scanner (not yet 510 K cleared as of this writing 2/2/2009). As part of this submission we have performed standardized NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association), ACR, and Hoffman phantom-based testing of this new instrumentation, which can be used to compare its performance with existing general-purpose scanners. We have also generated human FDG-PET and human amyloid radiotracer PET images and have compared these with those of the same subjects on conventional general-purpose PET scanners. We have demonstrated that our dedicated device is capable of generating high-quality static and dynamic brain images with sub-milliCurie patient doses, both for FDG and for human amyloid imaging agents. Our phantom test results are consistent with these results, closely tracking the performance of modern whole-body general-purpose PET scanners in terms of spatial resolution and measured image quality. Because of its reduced (30 cm aperture) bore diameter and its extended (24 cm) axial field of view, our system shows more than a factor of 2 increase in system sensitivity relative to existing general-purpose clinical PET scanners. Dedicated 3D PET brain instrumentation can provide both high image quality and the potential to significantly reduce patient dose, which may enable safe multiple repeat scans of the same patient for longitudinal studies or measurement of therapy response.