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Is it Feasible to Use the Commercially Available Autoquantitation Software for the Evaluation of Myocardial Viability on Small-Animal Cardiac F-18 FDG PET Scan?

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Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the reliability of quantitation of myocardial viability on cardiac F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) scans with three different methods of visual scoring system, autoquantitation using commercially available autoquantitation software, and infarct-size measurement using histogram-based maximum pixel threshold identification on polar-map in rat hearts.

Methods

A myocardial infarct (MI) model was made by left anterior descending artery (LAD) ligation in rat hearts. Eighteen MI rats underwent cardiac FDG-PET-computed tomography (CT) twice within a 4-week interval. Myocardium was partitioned into 20 segments for the comparison, and then we quantitated non-viable myocardium on cardiac FDG PET-CT with three different methods: method A—infarct-size measurement using histogram-based maximum pixel threshold identification on polar-map; method B—summed MI score (SMS) by a four-point visual scoring system; method C—metabolic non-viable values by commercially available autoquantitation software. Changes of non-viable myocardium on serial PET-CT scans with three different methods were calculated by the change of each parameter. Correlation and reproducibility were evaluated between the different methods.

Results

Infarct-size measurement, visual SMS, and non-viable values by autoquantitation software presented proportional relationship to each other. All the parameters of methods A, B, and C showed relatively good correlation between each other. Among them, infarct-size measurement (method A) and autoquantitation software (method C) showed the best correlation (r = 0.87, p < 0.001). When we evaluated the changes of non-viable myocardium on the serial FDG-PET-CT- however, autoquantitation program showed less correlation with the other methods. Visual assessment (method B) and those of infarct size (method A) showed the best correlation (r = 0.54, p = 0.02) for the assessment of interval changes.

Conclusions

Commercially available quantitation software could be applied to measure the myocardial viability on small animal cardiac FDG-PET-CT scan. This kind of quantitation showed good correlation with infarct size measurement by histogram-based maximum pixel threshold identification. However, this method showed the weak correlation when applied in the measuring the changes of non-viable myocardium on the serial scans, which means that the caution will be needed to evaluate the changes on the serial monitoring.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partly supported by Korea University Intramural Research Grants (2011-K1131781 and 2011-K1132941)

The authors have no conflicts of interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Korea University Anam Hospital, 126-1, Anam-Dong 5-Ga, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul, 136-705, South Korea

    Kisoo Pahk, Sun Young Oh, Eugene Jeong, Jae Gol Choe & Gi Jeong Cheon

  2. Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Korea University Anam Hospital, Seoul, South Korea

    Sung Ho Lee

  3. Molecular Imaging Research Center, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul, South Korea

    Sang Keun Woo & Jung Woo Yu

  4. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, 101 Daehak-Ro, Jongno-Gu, Seoul, 110-744, South Korea

    Gi Jeong Cheon

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  1. Kisoo Pahk
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Correspondence to Jae Gol Choe or Gi Jeong Cheon.

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Pahk, K., Oh, S.Y., Jeong, E. et al. Is it Feasible to Use the Commercially Available Autoquantitation Software for the Evaluation of Myocardial Viability on Small-Animal Cardiac F-18 FDG PET Scan?. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 47, 104–114 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-013-0206-8

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