Experiences on quantitative cardiac PET analysis

Quantitative analysis of PET images is a useful as well as essential practice to perform an objective measurement of a physiological process. It allows to study diseases, evaluating treatment response and comparing patients data by quantify images. The analysis consists in estimating the quantity of radionuclide tracer uptaken by tissues. We focus on quantitative analysis of dynamic PET studies to evaluate the diseases of coronary artery and myocardium perfusion. We report experiences on quantitative cardiac PET analysis by using a commercial and largely used software to evaluate viable myocardium through Patlak method. We report also results obtained on PET images provided by clinical departments of the Magna Graecia University Medical School of Catanzaro.