Artifacts at PET and PET/CT Caused by Metallic Hip Prosthetic Material

Abstract

Hip prosthetic material and a steel rod were scanned in a water bath of fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) with positron emission tomographic (PET) and PET/computed tomographic (CT) scanners to evaluate the generation of artifacts adjacent to the metal. The influences of attenuation correction (AC), positioning of the object, and image reconstruction were examined. Use of CT- and germanium 68-based AC resulted in generation of artifacts that mimicked increased FDG uptake. These artifacts were more evident when the object was moved between the emission and transmission scans. When attenuation-weighted iterative reconstruction was used, these artifacts were less evident.