Halo artifacts of indwelling urinary catheter by inaccurate scatter correction in
18F-FDG PET/CT imaging: incidence, mechanism, and solutions.
EJNMMI Phys 2020;
7:66. [PMID:
33185754 PMCID:
PMC7666262 DOI:
10.1186/s40658-020-00333-8]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2020] [Accepted: 10/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Halo artifacts from urinary catheters can occur due to inaccurate scatter correction, and the artifacts affect the tumor visibility in 18F-FDG PET/CT images. We investigated the incidence rate and the mechanisms of halo-artifact generation and explored several scatter correction techniques to prevent artifacts.
METHODS
We conducted patient and phantom studies. (1) We retrospectively reviewed the cases of patients who had undergone 18F-FDG PET/CT scans. To determine the frequency of halo-artifact generation, we used the patients' PET images with a standard scatter correction based on a tail-fitted single-scatter simulation (TF-SSS) using 4-mm voxel μ-maps (TFS 4-mm). (2) We performed phantom studies to evaluate the effects of a urine catheter and two scatter correction techniques, i.e., TF-SSS with 2-mm voxel μ-maps (TFS 2-mm) and a Monte Carlo-based single-scatter simulation (MC-SSS) using 4-mm voxel μ-maps (MCS 4-mm). The average standardized uptake values (SUVs) were measured for axial PET images. (3) Using the patients' data, we investigated whether TFS 2-mm and MCS 4-mm can eliminate the artifacts in the clinical images.
RESULTS
(1) There were 61 patients with urinary catheters; in five (8.2%), halo artifacts were observed in the TFS 4-mm PET images. (2) The phantom study clearly reproduced the halo artifacts in the TFS 4-mm PET images. The halo artifacts were generated when urine moved in the interval between the CT and PET imaging, and when the urinary catheter was placed in a circular shape. The SUVs for the TFS 4-mm and TFS-2mm PET images were underestimated at the halo-artifact regions, whereas the SUVs for the MCS 4-mm PET images were close to the true values. (3) The halo artifacts disappeared in the TFS 2-mm PET images in 4/5 patients but not 1/5 patient, whereas the halo artifacts were completely absent in the MCS 4-mm PET images in 5/5 patients.
CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest that halo artifacts are caused if the PET images do not correspond to the physical material in the μ-maps, which induces the scatter correction error. With the MC-SSS, it was possible to accurately estimate the scatter without generating halo artifacts.
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