A Study of Dynamic PET Frame-Binning on the Reference Logan Binding Potential

Objective: The reference Logan plot is a tool for determining the non-displaceable binding potential for dynamic PET exams using tracers with reversible bindings. Dynamic frame protocols affect noise in PET images and short frames can lead to quantitative uncertainties and noise-induced reconstruction bias. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of frame binning on
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C-Raclopride striatal binding potential from reference Logan analysis. Methods: 12 healthy volunteers were scanned in list mode using
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C-raclopride, and the image data were reconstructed into 9 different frame binning schemes whereof 3 clinical schemes. Reconstruction was performed with 3 different algorithms, one based on filtered back projection (FBP) and two based on ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM); one including resolution recovery. Logan plots were used for calculating the non-displaceable binding potential. Variation in binding potential was evaluated using Students t-tests. Results: It was found that frame lengths of up to 60 s gave significantly different results compared to the reference clinical protocol for OSEM, both with and without resolution recovery (maximum deviation: 10.3 % for the 15 s protocol). For FBP, frame lengths of up to 30 s gave significantly different results with a maximum deviation of 2.8 %. The higher sampling dependence of OSEM compared to FBP is likely due to noise-dependent bias in the OSEM algorithm, most apparent at high noise levels. Conclusions: Bias related to OSEM reconstruction of high-noise data is an important factor for dynamic PET protocols. Time frames of 120 s or more generate the most stable values for the striatum binding potential with the reference Logan plot for
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C-Raclopride brain PET.