A fully automatic, threshold-based segmentation method for the estimation of the Metabolic Tumor Volume from PET images: validation on 3D printed anthropomorphic oncological lesions

作     者：Gallivanone, F. Interlenghi, M. Canervari, C. Castiglioni, I. 

作者机构：CNR Inst Mol Imaging & Physiol Flli Cervi 93 Segrate Mi Italy IRCCS San Raffaele Sci Inst Div Nucl Med Via Olgettina 60 I-20132 Milan Italy 

出 版 物：《JOURNAL OF INSTRUMENTATION》 (仪表制造杂志)

年 卷 期：2016年第11卷第1期

页      面：C01022-C01022页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 080401[工学-精密仪器及机械] 0804[工学-仪器科学与技术] 081102[工学-检测技术与自动化装置] 0811[工学-控制科学与工程] 

主　　题：Gamma camera, SPECT, PET PET/CT, coronary CT angiography (CTA) Medical-image reconstruction methods and algorithms, computer-aided software Radiotherapy concepts 

摘      要：18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a standard functional diagnostic technique to in vivo image cancer. Different quantitative paramters can be extracted from PET images and used as in vivo cancer biomarkers. Between PET biomarkers Metabolic Tumor Volume (MTV) has gained an important role in particular considering the development of patient-personalized radiotherapy treatment for non-homogeneous dose delivery. Different imaging processing methods have been developed to define MTV. The different proposed PET segmentation strategies were validated in ideal condition (e.g. in spherical objects with uniform radioactivity concentration), while the majority of cancer lesions doesn t fulfill these requirements. In this context, this work has a twofold objective: 1) to implement and optimize a fully automatic, threshold-based segmentation method for the estimation of MTV, feasible in clinical practice 2) to develop a strategy to obtain anthropomorphic phantoms, including non-spherical and non-uniform objects, miming realistic oncological patient conditions. The developed PET segmentation algorithm combines an automatic threshold-based algorithm for the definition of MTV and a k-means clustering algorithm for the estimation of the background. The method is based on parameters always available in clinical studies and was calibrated using NEMA IQ Phantom. Validation of the method was performed both in ideal (e.g. in spherical objects with uniform radioactivity concentration) and non-ideal (e.g. in non-spherical objects with a non-uniform radioactivity concentration) conditions. The strategy to obtain a phantom with synthetic realistic lesions (e.g. with irregular shape and a non-homogeneous uptake) consisted into the combined use of standard anthropomorphic phantoms commercially and irregular molds generated using 3D printer technology and filled with a radioactive chromatic alginate. The proposed segmentation algorithm was feasible in a clin