Comparison of Parameter Estimations Using Dual-Input and Arterial-Input in Liver Kinetic Studies of FDG Metabolism

Liver kinetic study of [¹⁸F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) metabolism in human body is an important tool for functional modeling and glucose metabolic rate estimation. In general, the arterial blood time-activity curve (TAC) and the tissue TAC are required as the input and output functions for the kinetic model. For liver study, however, the arterial-input may be not consistent with the actual model input because the liver has a dual blood supply from the hepatic artery (HA) and the portal vein (PV) to the liver. In this study, the result of model parameter estimation using dual-input function is compared with that using arterial-input function. First, a dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) experiment is performed after injection of FDG into the human body. The TACs of aortic blood, PV blood, and five regions of interest (ROIs) in liver are obtained from the PET image. Then, the dual-input curve is generated by calculating weighted sum of both the arterial and PV input curves. Finally, the five liver ROIs' kinetic parameters are estimated with arterial-input and dual-input functions respectively. The results indicate that the two methods provide different parameter estimations and the dual-input function may lead to more accurate parameter estimation.