PET scout: A valuable technology in pediatric ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT imaging

To explore the potential value of PET Scout technology for optimizing the examination workflow of pediatric ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT.

A total of 527 children who underwent PET/CT imaging were prospectively divided into a standard-dose group (3.7 MBq/kg, n = 391) and a low-dose group (2.5 MBq/kg, n = 136). A body PET Scout scan (10 s/bed) was performed before PET/CT scan. Visual analysis of Scout MIP images identified improper positioning, radioactive contamination, and lesions outside the normal range (skull base to mid-thigh) as abnormal findings. Abnormal detection rates and lesion detection performance were compared between the two groups.

PET Scout identified abnormal detections in 9.7% (51/527) of patients, including out-of-range lesions (27 cases), contamination (19 cases), and postural abnormalities (5 cases). There was no significant difference in the abnormal detection rate (9.2% vs. 11.0%, χ² = 0.383, P = 0.536) and in the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of lesion detection performance (0.9086 vs. 0.9104; Z = -0.0953, P = 0.924) between the standard-dose group and the low-dose group. Optimal SUVmax cut-offs were 3.05 (sensitivity 82.9%; specificity 85.4%) and 3.25 (sensitivity 81.6%; specificity 87.0%) for the standard and low-dose groups, respectively.

PET Scout enables early detection of abnormalities and real-time workflow optimization. The technology is comparable in lesion detectability at low-dose and standard-dose imaging, and supports flexible application under different dose strategies.