Short-term PET-derived kinetic estimation for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: a combination of the maximum-slope method and dual-input three-compartment model

Tao Wang; Boqiao Li; Hong Shi; Pengfei Li; Yinglei Deng; Siyu Wang; Qiao Luo; Dongdong Xv; Jianfeng He; Shaobo Wang

doi:10.1186/s13244-023-01442-5

Short-term PET-derived kinetic estimation for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: a combination of the maximum-slope method and dual-input three-compartment model

Insights Imaging. 2023 May 24;14(1):98. doi: 10.1186/s13244-023-01442-5.

Authors

Tao Wang^#¹, Boqiao Li^#¹, Hong Shi², Pengfei Li³, Yinglei Deng³, Siyu Wang³, Qiao Luo³, Dongdong Xv³, Jianfeng He⁴, Shaobo Wang^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Yunnan Key Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Information Engineering and Automation, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan, China.
² Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translational Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China.
³ PET/CT Center, Affiliated Hospital of Kunming University of Science and Technology, First People's Hospital of Yunnan, Kunming, 650031, China.
⁴ Yunnan Key Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence, Faculty of Information Engineering and Automation, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan, China. jfenghe@foxmail.com.
⁵ PET/CT Center, Affiliated Hospital of Kunming University of Science and Technology, First People's Hospital of Yunnan, Kunming, 650031, China. wshbo_98@126.com.
⁶ Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translational Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China. wshbo_98@126.com.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Kinetic estimation provides fitted parameters related to blood flow perfusion and fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) transport and intracellular metabolism to characterize hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) but usually requires 60 min or more for dynamic PET, which is time-consuming and impractical in a busy clinical setting and has poor patient tolerance.

Methods: This study preliminarily evaluated the equivalence of liver kinetic estimation between short-term (5-min dynamic data supplemented with 1-min static data at 60 min postinjection) and fully 60-min dynamic protocols and whether short-term ¹⁸F-FDG PET-derived kinetic parameters using a three-compartment model can be used to discriminate HCC from the background liver tissue. Then, we proposed a combined model, a combination of the maximum-slope method and a three-compartment model, to improve kinetic estimation.

Results: There is a strong correlation between the kinetic parameters K₁ ~ k₃, HPI and [Formula: see text] in the short-term and fully dynamic protocols. With the three-compartment model, HCCs were found to have higher k₂, HPI and k₃ values than background liver tissues, while K₁, k₄ and [Formula: see text] values were not significantly different between HCCs and background liver tissues. With the combined model, HCCs were found to have higher HPI, K₁ and k₂, k₃ and [Formula: see text] values than background liver tissues; however, the k₄ value was not significantly different between HCCs and the background liver tissues.

Conclusions: Short-term PET is closely equivalent to fully dynamic PET for liver kinetic estimation. Short-term PET-derived kinetic parameters can be used to distinguish HCC from background liver tissue, and the combined model improves the kinetic estimation.

Clinical relevance statement: Short-term PET could be used for hepatic kinetic parameter estimation. The combined model could improve the estimation of liver kinetic parameters.

Keywords: Compartmental model; Hepatocellular carcinomas; Positron-emission tomography.

Abstract

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