Detection and compensation of organ/lesion motion using 4D-PET/CT respiratory gated acquisition techniques
Valentino Bettinardi1, Maria Picchio, Nadia Di Muzio
1Nuclear Medicine, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy. valentino.bettinardi@hsr.it
Purpose:
To describe the degradation effects produced by respiratory organ and lesion motion on PET/CT images and to define the role of respiratory gated (RG) 4D-PET/CT techniques to compensate for such effects.
Methods:
Based on the literature and on our own experience, technical recommendations and clinical indications for the use of RG 4D PET/CT have been outlined.
Results:
RG 4D-PET/CT techniques require a state of the art PET/CT scanner, a respiratory monitoring system and dedicated acquisition and processing protocols. Patient training is particularly important to obtain a regular breathing pattern. An adequate number of phases has to be selected to balance motion compensation and statistical noise. RG 4D PET/CT motion free images may be clinically useful for tumour tissue characterization, monitoring patient treatment and target definition in radiation therapy planning.
Conclusions:
RG 4D PET/CT is a valuable tool to improve image quality and quantitative accuracy and to assess and measure organ and lesion motion for radiotherapy planning.
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