Image derived input function for PET lung assessment
AssigneeThe General Hospital Corporation
InventorsTobias Schroder, Marcos F. Vidal Melo, Guido Musch, Robert Scott Harris, Jose G. Venegas, Tilo Winkler
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Abstract
An input function indicative of a time-activity curve in pulmonary arterial plasma is produced from a series of PET image frames in lieu of manual blood sampling. Two manually acquired blood samples are input along with pixel values of a blood pool region of interest (ROI) in the PET image frames into a two-parameter model of the ROI's time-activity curve. In an iterative process the model converges to accurately indicate the amount of 18F-FDG tracer in the arterial blood. Pulmonary uptake of the tracer is assessed with the PET image frames and the calculated input function.
Claims5
A method for calculating an input function for use in the assessment of lung activity in a subject, the steps comprising:
- a) administering a radionuclide tracer to the subject;
- b) acquiring a series of image frames with a positron emission tomographic (PET) system;
- c) acquiring two blood samples from the subject during the performance of step b);
- d) designating a blood pool region of interest (ROI) in the image frames;
- and
- e) calculating the input function using information in the two blood samples, using values in the image frames corresponding to the designated blood pool ROI, and using a two-parameter model of the ROI time-activity curve.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.