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Updated: May 5, 2026
Whole Body and Regional Quantification of Active Human Brown Adipose Tissue Using 18F-FDG PET/CT
Published on: April 1, 2019
How to assess background activity: introducing a histogram-based analysis as a first step for accurate one-step PET
Irene A Burger1, Hebert A Vargas, Brad J Beattie
1Departments of aRadiology bMedical Physics cEpidemiology-Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA dDepartment of Radiology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Calculating background activity in positron emission tomography (PET) scans using tumor histogram analysis is equivalent to traditional methods. This novel approach simplifies PET quantification by eliminating the need for separate background measurements, saving time and improving efficiency.
Area of Science:
- Nuclear Medicine
- Medical Imaging
- Oncology
Background:
- Positron emission tomography (PET) segmentation commonly relies on background activity.
- Current methods require manual delineation of a separate background volume of interest (VOI), increasing workload.
- This manual process is time-consuming for clinicians and researchers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the feasibility of calculating background activity from the tumor VOI using histogram analysis.
- To determine if this method is equivalent to traditional background measurements.
- To assess the impact on workload and inter-reader agreement in PET quantification.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-PET scans from patients with various tumor types (head and neck, lung, liver, skin, cervix).
- Two readers delineated a tumor VOI and a background VOI for each lesion.
- Equivalence testing compared the mean background VOI values with the mode of the tumor VOI histogram.
Main Results:
- The mode of the tumor VOI histogram was found to be equivalent to the mean background VOI value for both readers (P<0.0001).
- Inter-reader agreement for both methods was excellent, with concordance correlation coefficients >0.92.
- The histogram analysis method demonstrated high reproducibility and reliability.
Conclusions:
- Background activity can be accurately determined from the tumor VOI using histogram analysis in PET scans.
- This method offers a time-efficient alternative to traditional background VOI measurements.
- The findings support the integration of this technique into routine PET quantification to reduce workload and enhance consistency.
