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An easy‐to‐use phantom and protocol for weekly PET quality assessment: A multicenter study
Author(s) -
Vermandel M.,
Fin L.,
Hapdey S.,
Bol A.,
Betrouni N.,
Daouk J.,
Gardin I.,
Lee J.,
Jounwaz R.,
Rousseau J.,
Huglo D.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.2964091
Subject(s) - imaging phantom , image quality , computer science , scanner , image resolution , calibration , positron emission tomography , computer vision , protocol (science) , nuclear medicine , pet ct , software , artificial intelligence , medical physics , mathematics , medicine , image (mathematics) , pathology , programming language , statistics , alternative medicine
The authors have developed a simple phantom and dedicated software for the quality assessment of positron emission tomography (PET) scanners. The phantom is a parallelepiped box filled with a relatively low activityFDG18solution and in which simple test objects are placed. Various image quality parameters are checked, including signal‐to‐noise ratio, image uniformity, slice thickness, slice sensitivity profile, spatial resolution, and dose calibration accuracy. Automatic image analysis consists in detecting surfaces and objects, defining regions of interest, acquiring reference point coordinates, and establishing gray‐scale profiles. The total time needed for quality assessment (preparation and image acquisition) is less than 15 min with 37 MBq( 1 mCi )FDG18 . The system's ease of use encourages frequent image quality assessment—for example, the comparison of PET scanners in interdepartment studies and the monitoring and evaluation of possible drifts over time. By way of an example, the authors present weekly quality assessment results obtained over up to 7 months at four PET facilities.