부분 체적 효과에서 회복 계수를 이용한 보정 전과 후 SUV의 비교 분석

A Comparative Analysis of Standard Uptake Value Using the Recovery Coefficient Before and After Correcting Partial Volume Effect

Purpose: The partial volume effect occurs because of limit of the spatial resolution. It makes partial loss of intensity and causes SUV to be lower than it should actually be. So the purpose of this study is to calculate recovery coefficient for correcting PVE from phantom study and to compare before and after SUV correction applying to PET/CT examination. Materials and Methods: The flangeless Esser PET phantom consisting of four hot cylinders was used for this study. All of the hot cylinders were filled with FDG solution of 20.72 MBq per 1000 ml, and the phantom background was filled with FDG solution of different concentrations (33.30, 22.20, 16.65 MBq per 6440 ml) to yield H/B ratios of around 4:1, 6:1 and 8:1. Using the Biograph Truepoint 40(SIEMENS, Germany), we applied recovery coefficient method to 30 patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer after PET/CT exam. And then we analyzed and compared SUV before and after correcting partial volume effect. Results: The smaller the diameter of hot cylinder becomes, the more recovery coefficient decreased. When we applied recovery coefficient to clinical patients and compared SUV before and after correcting PVE, before the correction all lesions gave an average max SUV of 7.83. And after the correction, the average max SUV increases to 10.31. The differences in the max SUV between before and after correction were analyzed by paired t test. As a result, there were statistically significant differences (t=7.21, p=0.000). Conclusion: The SUV for quantification should be measured precisely to give consistent information of tumor uptake. But PVE is one of factors that causes SUV to be lower and to be underestimated. We can correct this PVE and calculate corrected SUV using the recovery coefficient from phantom study. And if we apply this correction method to clinical patients, we can finally assess and provide quantitative analysis more accurately.