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Moradi H, Vashistha R, Ghosh S, O'Brien K, Hammond A, Rominger A, Sari H, Shi K, Vegh V, Reutens D. Automated extraction of the arterial input function from brain images for parametric PET studies. EJNMMI Res 2024; 14:33. [PMID: 38558200 DOI: 10.1186/s13550-024-01100-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2023] [Accepted: 03/23/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Accurate measurement of the arterial input function (AIF) is crucial for parametric PET studies, but the AIF is commonly derived from invasive arterial blood sampling. It is possible to use an image-derived input function (IDIF) obtained by imaging a large blood pool, but IDIF measurement in PET brain studies performed on standard field of view scanners is challenging due to lack of a large blood pool in the field-of-view. Here we describe a novel automated approach to estimate the AIF from brain images. RESULTS Total body 18F-FDG PET data from 12 subjects were split into a model adjustment group (n = 6) and a validation group (n = 6). We developed an AIF estimation framework using wavelet-based methods and unsupervised machine learning to distinguish arterial and venous activity curves, compared to the IDIF from the descending aorta. All of the automatically extracted AIFs in the validation group had similar shape to the IDIF derived from the descending aorta IDIF. The average area under the curve error and normalised root mean square error across validation data were - 1.59 ± 2.93% and 0.17 ± 0.07. CONCLUSIONS Our automated AIF framework accurately estimates the AIF from brain images. It reduces operator-dependence, and could facilitate the clinical adoption of parametric PET.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hamed Moradi
- Centre for Advanced Imaging, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- ARC Training Centre for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging Technology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Siemens Healthcare Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Rajat Vashistha
- Centre for Advanced Imaging, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- ARC Training Centre for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging Technology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Soumen Ghosh
- Centre for Advanced Imaging, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- ARC Training Centre for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging Technology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Kieran O'Brien
- Centre for Advanced Imaging, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- ARC Training Centre for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging Technology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Siemens Healthcare Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Amanda Hammond
- ARC Training Centre for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging Technology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Siemens Healthcare Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Axel Rominger
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Freiburgstrasse 18, 3010, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Hasan Sari
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Freiburgstrasse 18, 3010, Bern, Switzerland
- Advanced Clinical Imaging Technology, Siemens Healthcare AG, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Kuangyu Shi
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Freiburgstrasse 18, 3010, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Viktor Vegh
- Centre for Advanced Imaging, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
- ARC Training Centre for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging Technology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
| | - David Reutens
- Centre for Advanced Imaging, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- ARC Training Centre for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging Technology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
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Sarrhini O, D'Orléans-Juste P, Rousseau JA, Beaudoin JF, Lecomte R. Enhanced Extraction of Blood and Tissue Time-Activity Curves in Cardiac Mouse FDG PET Imaging by Means of Constrained Nonnegative Matrix Factorization. Int J Biomed Imaging 2023; 2023:5366733. [PMID: 37362614 PMCID: PMC10287520 DOI: 10.1155/2023/5366733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Revised: 05/16/2023] [Accepted: 05/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023] Open
Abstract
We propose an enhanced method to accurately retrieve time-activity curves (TACs) of blood and tissue from dynamic 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose ([18F]FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) cardiac images of mice. The method is noninvasive and consists of using a constrained nonnegative matrix factorization algorithm (CNMF) applied to the matrix (A) containing the intensity values of the voxels of the left ventricle (LV) PET image. CNMF factorizes A into nonnegative matrices H and W, respectively, representing the physiological factors (blood and tissue) and their associated weights, by minimizing an extended cost function. We verified our method on 32 C57BL/6 mice, 14 of them with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). With CNMF, we could break down the mouse LV into myocardial and blood pool images. Their corresponding TACs were used in kinetic modeling to readily determine the [18F]FDG influx constant (Ki) required to compute the myocardial metabolic rate of glucose. The calculated Ki values using CNMF for the heart of control mice were in good agreement with those published in the literature. Significant differences in Ki values for the heart of control and AMI mice were found using CNMF. The values of the elements of W agreed well with the LV structural changes induced by ligation of the left coronary artery. CNMF was compared with the recently published method based on robust unmixing of dynamic sequences using regions of interest (RUDUR). A clear improvement of signal separation was observed with CNMF compared to the RUDUR method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Otman Sarrhini
- Sherbrooke Molecular Imaging Center, Research Center of the Sherbrooke University Hospital (CRCHUS), Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
| | - Pedro D'Orléans-Juste
- Department of Pharmacology-Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
| | - Jacques A. Rousseau
- Sherbrooke Molecular Imaging Center, Research Center of the Sherbrooke University Hospital (CRCHUS), Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
| | - Jean-François Beaudoin
- Sherbrooke Molecular Imaging Center, Research Center of the Sherbrooke University Hospital (CRCHUS), Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
| | - Roger Lecomte
- Sherbrooke Molecular Imaging Center, Research Center of the Sherbrooke University Hospital (CRCHUS), Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
- Department of Nuclear Medicine and Radiobiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
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Longitudinal mouse-PET imaging: a reliable method for estimating binding parameters without a reference region or blood sampling. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2020; 47:2589-2601. [PMID: 32211931 PMCID: PMC7515949 DOI: 10.1007/s00259-020-04755-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2019] [Accepted: 03/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Abstract Longitudinal mouse PET imaging is becoming increasingly popular due to the large number of transgenic and disease models available but faces challenges. These challenges are related to the small size of the mouse brain and the limited spatial resolution of microPET scanners, along with the small blood volume making arterial blood sampling challenging and impossible for longitudinal studies. The ability to extract an input function directly from the image would be useful for quantification in longitudinal small animal studies where there is no true reference region available such as TSPO imaging. Methods Using dynamic, whole-body 18F-DPA-714 PET scans (60 min) in a mouse model of hippocampal sclerosis, we applied a factor analysis (FA) approach to extract an image-derived input function (IDIF). This mouse-specific IDIF was then used for 4D-resolution recovery and denoising (4D-RRD) that outputs a dynamic image with better spatial resolution and noise properties, and a map of the total volume of distribution (VT) was obtained using a basis function approach in a total of 9 mice with 4 longitudinal PET scans each. We also calculated percent injected dose (%ID) with and without 4D-RRD. The VT and %ID parameters were compared to quantified ex vivo autoradiography using regional correlations of the specific binding from autoradiography against VT and %ID parameters. Results The peaks of the IDIFs were strongly correlated with the injected dose (Pearson R = 0.79). The regional correlations between the %ID estimates and autoradiography were R = 0.53 without 4D-RRD and 0.72 with 4D-RRD over all mice and scans. The regional correlations between the VT estimates and autoradiography were R = 0.66 without 4D-RRD and 0.79 with application of 4D-RRD over all mice and scans. Conclusion We present a FA approach for IDIF extraction which is robust, reproducible and can be used in quantification methods for resolution recovery, denoising and parameter estimation. We demonstrated that the proposed quantification method yields parameter estimates closer to ex vivo measurements than semi-quantitative methods such as %ID and is immune to tracer binding in tissue unlike reference tissue methods. This approach allows for accurate quantification in longitudinal PET studies in mice while avoiding repeated blood sampling. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00259-020-04755-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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