Ultrafast 30-s total-body PET/CT scan: a preliminary study.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the diagnostic value of the images obtained in ultrafast 30-s acquisition time by the total-body PET/CT (18F-FDG injection dose of about 3.7MBq/kg), and to evaluate whether they can meet the requirements of clinical diagnosis or not. This retrospective study explored the clinical value of ultrafast 30-s 18F-FDG total-body PET/CT in 88 oncology patients, using the post-surgical pathological diagnosis as the reference standard. The data were acquired over 300s and reconstructed using all 300-s data (G300) and only the initial 30s (G30). Two readers independently assessed all images qualitatively and quantitatively. The diagnostic performance was compared between G300 and G30. The G300 average qualitative score was higher than G30 (P < 0.001). G300 and G30 also differed quantitatively in the liver and mediastinum SUVmax, SD, and SNR (all P < 0.001), but had similar sensitivities (89.09% vs. 86.36%, P = 0.250). The G300 group had higher accuracy (79.73%) and a larger area under the curve (0.709) than G30 (77.70% and 0.695, respectively; all P > 0.05). The 30-s total-body PET/CT could meet clinical diagnostic requirements for malignant tumors in patients intolerant to prolonged horizontal positioning.