Reducing Radiation Exposure to Paediatric Patients Undergoing [18F]FDG-PET/CT Imaging.

PURPOSE: To investigate the possibility of reducing the injected activity for whole-body [18F]FDG-PET/CT studies of paediatric oncology patients and to assess the usefulness of time-of-flight (TOF) acquisition on PET image quality at reduced count levels. PROCEDURES: Twenty-nine paediatric oncology patients (12F/17M, 3-18 years old (median age 13y), weight 45±20 kg, BMI 19±4 kg/m2), who underwent routine whole-body PET/CT examinations on a Siemens Biograph mCT TrueV system with TOF capability (555ps) were included in this study. The mean injected activity was 156 ± 45 MBq (3.8 ± 0.8 kg/MBq) and scaled to patient weight. The raw data was collected in listmode (LM) format and pre-processed to simulate reduced levels of [18F]FDG activity (75, 50, 35, 20 and 10% of the original counts) by randomly removing events from the original LM data. All data were reconstructed using the vendor-specific e7-tools with standard OSEM only, with OSEM plus resolution recovery (PSF). The reconstructions were repeated with added TOF (TOF) and PSF+TOF. The benefit of TOF together with the reduced count levels was evaluated by calculating the gains in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the liver and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) in all PET-positive lesions before and after TOF employed at every simulated reduced count level. Finally, the PSF+TOF images at 50, 75 and 100% of counts were evaluated clinically on a 5-point scale by three nuclear medicine physicians. RESULTS: The visual inspection of the reconstructed images did not reveal significant differences in image quality between 75 and 100% count levels for PSF+TOF. The improvements in SNR and CNR were the greatest for TOF reconstruction and PSF combined. Both SNR and CNR gains did increase linearly with the patients BMI for both OSEM only and PSF reconstruction. These benefits were observed until reducing the counts to 50 and 35% for SNR and CNR, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The benefit of using TOF was noticeable when using 50% or greater of the counts when evaluating the CNR and SNR. For [18F]FDG-PET/CT, whole-body paediatric imaging the injected activity can be reduced to 75% of the original dose without compromising PET image quality.

An Australian local diagnostic reference level for paediatric whole-body 18F-FDG PET/CT.

OBJECTIVE:: The aim of this study is to report a local diagnostic reference level (DRL) for paediatric whole-body (WB) fludeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) CT examinations. METHODS:: The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) national DRL (NDRL) age category (0-4 years and 5-14 years), the International Commission on Radiological Protection age category (ICRP age) (<1, >1-5, >5-10, and >10-15 years), and European guideline weight category ( EG weight) (<5, 5-<15, 15-<30, 30-<50, and 50-<80 kg) were used to determine a local DRL for WB 18F FDG PET/CT studies. Two-structured questionnaires were designed to collect dose data, patient demographics, equipment details, and acquisition protocols for WB 18F-FDG PET/CT procedures. The local DRL was based on the median 18F-FDG administered activity (MBq), dose-length product (DLP), and the CT dose index volume (CTDIvol), values. The effective dose (E) was also calculated and reported. RESULTS:: The local DRLs for 18F-FDG administered activity, CTDIvol and DLP values based on ARPANSA age and ICRP age were increased from lower to higher age categories. For the EG weight category, the local DRL for 18F-FDG administered activity, CTDIvol and DLP values were increased from the low EG weight category to the high EG weight category. The mean administered activity in our study based on ICRP age category >1-5, >5-10, and >10-15 years is 79.97, 119.40, and 176.04 MBq, which is lower than the mean administered activity reported in the North American Consensus guideline published in 2010 (99, 166, and 286 MBq) and European Association of Nuclear Medicine and Dosage Card (version 1.5.2008) (120, 189, and 302 MBq). However, the mean administered activity in our study based on ICRP age category <1 year was 55 MBq compared to the EANM Dosage card (version 1.5.2008) (70 MBq) and the NACG 2010 (51 MBq). Our study shows that the finding for ICRP age category <1 year was similar to the NACG 2010 value. CONCLUSION:: The determined local DRL values for the radiation doses associated with WB 18F FDG PET/CT examinations are differed considerably between the ARPANSA and ICRP age category and EG weight category. Although, the determined 18F-FDG value for ICRP < 1 year is in good agreement with available publish data, it is preferable to optimise the 18F-FDG administered activity while preserving the diagnostic image quality. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE:: The local DRL value determined from WB 18F-FDG PET/CT examinations may help to establish the ARPANSA NDRL for WB FDG 18F-PET/CT examinations.