Quality control of small animal PET scanner: The Brazilian Scenario

Abstract

This work aims to evaluate the quality control program for small animal PET (positron emission tomography) scanners in Brazil. A questionnaire focused on type of small animal PET scanner and quality assurance program was prepared and sent to all Brazilian preclinical molecular imaging services that participated in the first Brazilian microPET/SPECT/CT users meeting held at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The answers were compiled and descriptive statistic was applied. There are six preclinical molecular imaging services using PET scanner in Brazil. Five are in the southeastern region and one in the southern region. All services have a single PET device, but most of them have hybrids modalities with CT (computed tomography) and/or SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography). All services have knowledge of the NEMA NU 4-2008 publication specific to small animal PET equipments. However, most of them do not have a quality assurance program in place for their imaging systems. There are few preclinical PET devices installed in Brazil and most of them are located at southeastern region. Regardless the absence of quality assurance program in many of the services, there is a consensus on the importance of quality control program implementation.

Keywords

• positron emission tomography
• quality control
• NEMA NU 4-2008