Ultrafast 30-s total-body PET/CT scan: a preliminary study.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the diagnostic value of the images obtained in ultrafast 30-s acquisition time by the total-body PET/CT (¹⁸F-FDG injection dose of about 3.7 MBq/kg), and to evaluate whether they can meet the requirements of clinical diagnosis or not. This retrospective study explored the clinical value of ultrafast 30-s ¹⁸F-FDG total-body PET/CT in 88 oncology patients, using the post-surgical pathological diagnosis as the reference standard. The data were acquired over 300 s and reconstructed using all 300-s data (G300) and only the initial 30 s (G30). Two readers independently assessed all images qualitatively and quantitatively. The diagnostic performance was compared between G300 and G30. The G300 average qualitative score was higher than G30 (P < 0.001). G300 and G30 also differed quantitatively in the liver and mediastinum SUV_max, SD, and SNR (all P < 0.001), but had similar sensitivities (89.09% vs. 86.36%, P = 0.250). The G300 group had higher accuracy (79.73%) and a larger area under the curve (0.709) than G30 (77.70% and 0.695, respectively; all P > 0.05). The 30-s total-body PET/CT could meet clinical diagnostic requirements for malignant tumors in patients intolerant to prolonged horizontal positioning.