Positron Range Corrections and Denoising Techniques for Gallium-68 PET Imaging: A Literature Review
Diagnostics, vol. 12, pp. 2335
Abstract
Gallium-68 (68Ga) is characterized by relatively high positron energy compared to Fluorine-18 (18F), causing substantial image quality degradation. Furthermore, the presence of statistical noise can further degrade image quality. The aim of this literature review is to identify the recently developed positron range correction techniques for 68Ga, as well as noise reduction methods to enhance the image quality of low count 68Ga PET imaging. The search engines PubMed and Scopus were employed, and we limited our research to published results from January 2010 until 1 August 2022. Positron range correction was achieved by using either deblurring or deep learning approaches. The proposed techniques improved the image quality and, in some cases, achieved an image quality comparable to 18F PET. However, none of these techniques was validated in clinical studies. PET denoising for 68Ga-labeled radiotracers was reported using either reconstruction-based techniques or deep learning approaches. It was demonstrated that both approaches can substantially enhance the image quality by reducing the noise levels of low count 68Ga PET imaging. The combination of 68Ga-specific positron range correction techniques and image denoising approaches may enable the application of low-count, high-quality 68Ga PET imaging in a clinical setting.
Authors 5
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KU Leuven · Maastricht University · Maastricht University Medical Centre
Affiliation as printed
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, 6229 HX Maastricht, The Netherlands
Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
School for Oncology and Reproduction (GROW), Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
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Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic · Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico
Affiliation as printed
Unit of Nuclear Medicine, TracerGLab, Department of Radiology, Radiotherapy and Hematology, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy
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RWTH Aachen University · Universitätsklinikum Aachen · Maastricht University · Maastricht University Medical Centre
Affiliation as printed
Department of Nuclear Medicine, RWTH University Hospital, D-52074 Aachen, Germany
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, 6229 HX Maastricht, The Netherlands
School for Oncology and Reproduction (GROW), Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
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Maastricht University · Maastricht University Medical Centre
Affiliation as printed
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, 6229 HX Maastricht, The Netherlands
School for Oncology and Reproduction (GROW), Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
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