Impact of point spread function correction in standardized uptake value quantitation for positron emission tomography images: a study based on phantom experiments and clinical images

Abstract

While point spread function (PSF)-based positron emission tomography (PET) reconstruction effectively improves the spatial resolution and image quality of PET, it may damage its quantitative properties by producing edge artifacts, or Gibbs artifacts, which appear to cause overestimation of regional radioactivity concentration. In this report, we investigated how edge artifacts produce negative effects on the quantitative properties of PET. Experiments with a National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) phantom, containing radioactive spheres of a variety of sizes and background filled with cold air or water, or radioactive solutions, showed that profiles modified by edge artifacts were reproducible regardless of background μ values, and the effects of edge artifacts increased with increasing sphere-to-background radioactivity concentration ratio (S/B ratio). Profiles were also affected by edge artifacts in complex fashion in response to variable combinations of sphere sizes and S/B ratios; and central single-peak overestimation up to 50% was occasionally noted in relatively small spheres with high S/B ratios. Effects of edge artifacts were obscured in spheres with low S/B ratios. In patient images with a variety of focal lesions, areas of higher radioactivity accumulation were generally more enhanced by edge artifacts, but the effects were variable depending on the size of and accumulation in the lesion. PET images generated using PSF-based reconstruction are therefore not appropriate for the evaluation of SUV.