High temporal resolution total-body dynamic PET imaging based on pixel-level time-activity curve correction

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel pixel-level time-activity curve correction method for high temporal resolution total-body dynamic PET imaging, improving image quality and contrast in short frame durations using uEXPLORER data.

Contribution

It proposes the Pitch-In method based on third-order Hermite interpolation for denoising short-duration dPET images, demonstrating superior performance over existing techniques.

Findings

Enhanced image noise reduction in high temporal resolution dPET

Improved imaging contrast compared to state-of-the-art methods

Validated stability and feasibility for clinical application

Abstract

Dynamic positron emission tomography (dPET) is currently a widely used medical imaging technique for the clinical diagnosis, staging and therapy guidance of all kinds of human cancers. Higher temporal imaging resolution for the early stage of radiotracer metabolism is desired; however, in this case, the reconstructed images with short frame durations always suffer from a limited image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and unsatisfactory image spatial resolution. The appearance of uEXPLORER (United Imaging Healthcare, Inc.) with higher PET imaging sensitivity and resolution may help solving this problem. In this work, based on dynamic PET data acquired by uEXPLORER, we proposed a dPET processing method that denoises images with short frame durations via pixel-level time-activity curve (TAC) correction based on third-order Hermite interpolation (Pitch-In). The proposed method was validated and compared to several state-of-the-art methods to demonstrate its superior performance in terms of high temporal resolution dPET image noise reduction and imaging contrast. Higher stability and feasibility of the proposed Pitch-In method for future clinical application with high temporal resolution (HTR) dPET imaging can be expected.