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Derivation of a respiration trigger signal in small animal list-mode PET based on respiration-induced variations of the ECG signal

  • Original Article
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Journal of Nuclear Cardiology Aims and scope

Abstract

Background

Raw PET list-mode data contains motion artifacts causing image blurring and decreased spatial resolution. Unless corrected, this leads to underestimation of the tracer uptake and overestimation of the lesion size, as well as inaccuracies with regard to left ventricular volume and ejection fraction (LVEF), especially in small animal imaging.

Methods and Results

A respiratory trigger signal from respiration-induced variations in the electro-cardiogram (ECG) was detected. Original and revised list-mode PET data were used for calculation of left ventricular function parameters using both respiratory gating techniques. For adequately triggered datasets we saw no difference in mean respiratory cycle period between the reference standard (RRS) and the ECG-based (ERS) methods (1120 ± 159 ms vs 1120 ± 159 ms; P = n.s.). While the ECG-based method showed somewhat higher signal noise (66 ± 22 ms vs 51 ± 29 ms; P < .001), both respiratory triggering techniques yielded similar estimates for EDV, ESV, LVEF (RRS: 387 ± 56 µL, 162 ± 34 µL, 59 ± 5%; ERS: 389 ± 59 µL, 163 ± 35 µL, 59 ± 4%; P = n.s.).

Conclusions

This study showed that respiratory gating signals can be accurately derived from cardiac trigger information alone, without the additional requirement for dedicated measurement of the respiratory motion in rats.

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Abbreviations

PET:

Positron-emission-tomography

FDG:

2-Deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose

LVF:

Left ventricular function

TE:

Trigger-event

RRS:

Reference respiratory signal

ERS:

ECG based respiratory signal

LVMV:

Left ventricular metabolic volume

RSD:

Relative standard deviation

MRSD:

Mean RSD

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the colleagues of the laboratory for preclinical imaging of our institution for animal handling and acquisition of the animal data. We thank in particular Dr. J. Schlichtiger for performing the measurements and Siemens Healthcare for providing specifications of the Inveon list-mode data file. Financial support was provided by the Nachlass Kuhbier-Langewiesche. We note editorial revisions by Inglewood Biomedical Editing.

Disclosure

None of the authors have a conflict of interest associated with this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Munich, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377, Munich, Germany

    Andrei Todica MD, Sebastian Lehner MD, Hao Wang MD, Mathias J. Zacherl MD, Katharina Nekolla, Erik Mille MD, Guoming Xiong PhD, Peter Bartenstein MD & Guido Böning PhD

  2. German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, DSGZ, University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Guoming Xiong PhD

  3. Department of Clinical Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Christian la Fougère MD

  4. Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Marcus Hacker MD

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  1. Andrei Todica MD
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  2. Sebastian Lehner MD
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  3. Hao Wang MD
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  4. Mathias J. Zacherl MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrei Todica MD.

Additional information

See related editorial, doi:10.1007/s12350-015-0192-6.

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Todica, A., Lehner, S., Wang, H. et al. Derivation of a respiration trigger signal in small animal list-mode PET based on respiration-induced variations of the ECG signal. J. Nucl. Cardiol. 23, 73–83 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12350-015-0154-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12350-015-0154-z

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