We are developing a rigorous evaluation methodology for objective assessment of image quality for lesion detection and activity quantitation tasks. We have applied our methods to assess the performance of different acquisition (2D vs 3D) and processing methods for variable patient sizes in the context of lesion detection in whole body FDG-PET. Our results show that for lesion detection and activity quantitation tasks, 3D imaging yielded better lesion detectability than 2D (p<0.025, two-tailed paired t-test) in patients of normal size (Body Mass Index [BMI] ≤ 31). However 2D imaging yielded better lesion detectability than 3D in large patients (BMI > 31) as 3D performance deteriorated in large patients (p<0.05). 2D and 3D yielded similar results for different lesion sizes. We are presently extending our work to the assessment of performance of Time of Flight PET and 4D PET.
Related Papers:
El Fakhri G., Santos P., Badawi R.D., Holdsworth C.H., Van den Abbeele A.D., Kijewski M.F. Impact of acquisition geometry, image processing, and patient habitus on tumor detection in whole - body FDG-PET. J. Nucl. Med. 2007; 48: 1951-1960. [PDF]
Moore S.C., Kijewski M.F., and El Fakhri G. Collimator optimization for detection and quantitation tasks: application to gallium-67 imaging. IEEE Trans. Med. Imag; 2005; 24: 1347-1356.
El Fakhri G., Kijewski M.F., Albert M.S., Johnson K.A., and Moore S.C. Quantitative SPECT leads to improved performance in discrimination tasks related to prodromal Alzheimer�s disease. J. Nucl. Med. 2004; 45: 2026-2031. [PDF]
El Fakhri G., Kijewski M.F., Johnson K.A., Syrkin G, Killiany R.J., Becker JA, Zimmerman R.E., Albert M.S. MRI-Guided SPECT perfusion measures and volumetric MRI in prodromal Alzheimer�s disease. Arch Neurol 2003; 60: 1066-1072. [PDF]
El Fakhri G., Moore S.C., and Kijewski M.F. Optimization of Ga-67 imaging for detection and estimation tasks: dependence of imaging performance on spectral acquisition parameters. Med Phys 2002; 29: 1859-1866. [PDF]
Jadvar H, Moore SC, Kijewski MF, Bonab A, Zimmerman RE, Fischman AJ. Evaluation of SPECT imaging systems based on activity estimation in small brain structures. J. Nucl. Med. 2000;41:180P.