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On the accuracy and reproducibility of a novel probabilistic atlas-based generation for calculation of head attenuation maps on integrated PET/MR scanners

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Abstract

Purpose

To propose an MR-based method for generating continuous-valued head attenuation maps and to assess its accuracy and reproducibility. Demonstrating that novel MR-based photon attenuation correction methods are both accurate and reproducible is essential prior to using them routinely in research and clinical studies on integrated PET/MR scanners.

Methods

Continuous-valued linear attenuation coefficient maps (“μ-maps”) were generated by combining atlases that provided the prior probability of voxel positions belonging to a certain tissue class (air, soft tissue, or bone) and an MR intensity-based likelihood classifier to produce posterior probability maps of tissue classes. These probabilities were used as weights to generate the μ-maps. The accuracy of this probabilistic atlas-based continuous-valued μ-map (“PAC-map”) generation method was assessed by calculating the voxel-wise absolute relative change (RC) between the MR-based and scaled CT-based attenuation-corrected PET images. To assess reproducibility, we performed pair-wise comparisons of the RC values obtained from the PET images reconstructed using the μ-maps generated from the data acquired at three time points.

Results

The proposed method produced continuous-valued μ-maps that qualitatively reflected the variable anatomy in patients with brain tumor and agreed well with the scaled CT-based μ-maps. The absolute RC comparing the resulting PET volumes was 1.76 ± 2.33 %, quantitatively demonstrating that the method is accurate. Additionally, we also showed that the method is highly reproducible, the mean RC value for the PET images reconstructed using the μ-maps obtained at the three visits being 0.65 ± 0.95 %.

Conclusion

Accurate and highly reproducible continuous-valued head μ-maps can be generated from MR data using a probabilistic atlas-based approach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA

    Kevin T. Chen, David Izquierdo-Garcia, Clare B. Poynton, Daniel B. Chonde & Ciprian Catana

  2. Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Kevin T. Chen

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Clare B. Poynton

  4. Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Clare B. Poynton

  5. Program in Biophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Daniel B. Chonde

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  1. Kevin T. Chen
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  5. Ciprian Catana
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ciprian Catana.

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Funding

This work was funded by NIH grant 1R01EB014894-01A1 and by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) through the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) Program.

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None.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Chen, K.T., Izquierdo-Garcia, D., Poynton, C.B. et al. On the accuracy and reproducibility of a novel probabilistic atlas-based generation for calculation of head attenuation maps on integrated PET/MR scanners. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 44, 398–407 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-016-3489-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-016-3489-z

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