Semiautomatic Software For Quantitative Analysis Of Cardiac Positron Tomography Studies

Abstract

In order to derive accurate values for true tissue radiotracers concentrations from gated positron emission tomography (PET) images of the heart, which are critical for quantifying noninvasively regional myocardial blood flow and metabolism, appropriate corrections for partial volume effect (PVE) and contamination from adjacent anatomical structures are required. We therefore developed an integrated software package for quantitative analysis of tomographic images which provides for such corrections. A semiautomatic edge detection technique outlines and partitions the myocardium into sectors. Myocardial wall thickness is measured on the images perpendicularly to the detected edges and used to correct for PVE. The programs automatically correct for radioactive decay, activity calibration and cross contaminations for both static and dynamic studies. Parameters derived with these programs include tracer concentrations and their changes over time. They are used for calculating regional metabolic rates and can be further displayed as color coded parametric images. The approach was validated for PET imaging in 11 dog experiments. 2D echocardiograms (Echo) were recorded simultaneously to validate the edge detection and wall thickness measurement techniques. After correction for PVE using automatic WT measurement, regional tissue tracer concentrations derived from PET images correlated well with true tissue concentrations as determined by well counting (r=0.98). These preliminary studies indicate that the developed automatic image analysis technique allows accurate and convenient evaluation of cardiac PET images for the measurement of both, regional tracer tissue concentrations as well as regional myocardial function.