Phantom and clinical assessment of small pulmonary nodules using Q.Clear reconstruction on a silicon-photomultiplier-based time-of-flight PET/CT system

Abstract

Abstract To evaluate the quantification accuracy of different positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) reconstruction algorithms, we measured the recovery coefficient (RC) and contrast recovery (CR) in phantom studies. The results played a guiding role in the partial-volume-effect correction (PVC) for following clinical evaluations. The PET images were reconstructed with four different methods: ordered subsets expectation maximization (OSEM), OSEM with time-of-flight (TOF), OSEM with TOF and point spread function (PSF), and Bayesian penalized likelihood (BPL, known as Q.Clear in the PET/CT of GE Healthcare). In clinical studies, SUVmax and SUVmean (the maximum and mean of the standardized uptake values, SUVs) of 75 small pulmonary nodules (sub-centimeter group: 0.05). The SUVs of sub-centimeter fludeoxyglucose (FDG)-avid pulmonary nodules with Q.Clear illustrated highly significant differences from those reconstructed with other algorithms (P < 0.001). After performing the PVC, highly significant differences (P < 0.001) still existed in the SUVmean measured by Q.Clear comparing with those measured by the other algorithms. Our results suggest that the Q.Clear reconstruction algorithm improved the quantification accuracy towards the true uptake, which potentially promotes the diagnostic confidence and treatment response evaluations with PET/CT imaging, especially for the sub-centimeter pulmonary nodules. For small lesions, PVC is essential.