Exploiting an MRI derived arterial input function to improve the PET simultaneous estimation method: Validation of assumptions

Authors

Hasan Sari, University College London
Kjell Erlandsson, University College London
Anna Barnes, University College London
David Atkinson, University College London
Simon Arridge, University College London
Sebastien Ourselin, University College London
Brian F. Hutton, University of Wollongong, University College London

RIS ID

107199

Publication Details

Sari, H., Erlandsson, K., Barnes, A., Atkinson, D., Arridge, S., Ourselin, S. & Hutton, B. F. (2014). Exploiting an MRI derived arterial input function to improve the PET simultaneous estimation method: Validation of assumptions. 2014 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC) (pp. 1-4). United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Abstract

Kinetic analysis of dynamic PET data requires a correct knowledge of the arterial input function (AIF) which is often not straightforward to measure. An alternative method to invasive blood sampling is the simultaneous estimation (SIME) method, where the AIF and kinetic parameters are estimated at the same time using kinetic information from different regions. We have previously shown that if the total number of parameters estimated in the SIME optimization can be reduced in SIME method the bias of estimates can be reduced significantly. In this work, we compared four pairs of AIFs derived from 18F-Choline PET and DSC-MRI studies. For all patients, similar bolus shapes were observed once both PET-AIF and MRI-AIF were brought to same injection duration. Parameters representing the early part of the AIF were found to be convertible between modalities.