Motion-Corrected Imaging of the Aortic Valve with ¹⁸F-NaF PET/CT and PET/MRI: A Feasibility Study

Area of Science:

• Nuclear Medicine
• Medical Imaging
• Cardiovascular Imaging

Background:

• Hybrid imaging with ¹⁸F-fluoride PET/CT and PET/MRI is emerging for aortic valve assessment.
• Cardiac motion can degrade image quality and quantitation in gated PET studies.
• Accurate assessment of aortic valve calcification is crucial for diagnosing and managing aortic stenosis.

Observation:

• ¹⁸F-fluoride shows high uptake in the aortic valve in patients with aortic stenosis.
• Gated PET data from multiple cardiac phases are available.
• A novel motion correction algorithm was applied to align PET images from 4 cardiac gates.

Findings:

• Motion correction significantly increased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) from 21.0 to 51.61 compared to the diastolic gate.
• Target-to-background ratio (TBR) improved from 2.22 to 2.85 after motion correction.
• Image noise was reduced by over 50% with motion correction (0.105 to 0.042).

Implications:

• Motion correction is a valuable tool for improving the diagnostic accuracy of ¹⁸F-fluoride PET imaging of the aortic valve.
• Enhanced image quality facilitates more reliable PET quantitation for assessing aortic valve disease.
• This technique holds promise for better patient stratification and treatment monitoring in aortic stenosis.