Olde Heuvel J, de Wit-van der Veen BJ, Vyas KN, Tuch DS, Grootendorst MR, Stokkel MPM, Slump CH. Performance evaluation of Cerenkov luminescence imaging: a comparison of
68Ga with
18F.
EJNMMI Phys 2019;
6:17. [PMID:
31650365 PMCID:
PMC6813407 DOI:
10.1186/s40658-019-0255-x]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2019] [Accepted: 09/27/2019] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Cerenkov Luminescence Imaging (CLI) is an emerging technology for intraoperative margin assessment. Previous research only evaluated radionuclide 18-Fluorine (18F); however, for future applications in prostate cancer, 68-Gallium (68Ga) seems more suitable, given its higher positron energy. Theoretical calculations predict that 68Ga should offer a higher signal-to-noise ratio than 18F; this is the first experimental confirmation. The aim of this study is to investigate the technical performance of CLI by comparing 68Ga to 18F.
RESULTS
The linearity of the system, detection limit, spatial resolution, and uniformity were determined with the LightPath imaging system. All experiments were conducted with clinically relevant activity levels in vitro, using dedicated phantoms. For both radionuclides, a linear relationship between the activity concentration and detected light yield was observed (R2 = 0.99). 68Ga showed approximately 22 times more detectable Cerenkov signal compared to 18F. The detectable activity concentration after a 120 s exposure time and 2 × 2 binning of 18F was 23.7 kBq/mL and 1.2 kBq/mL for 68Ga. The spatial resolution was 1.31 mm for 18F and 1.40 mm for 68Ga. The coefficient of variance of the uniformity phantom was 0.07 for the central field of view.
CONCLUSION
68Ga was superior over 18F in terms of light yield and minimal detection limit. However, as could be expected, the resolution was 0.1 mm less for 68Ga. Given the clinical constraints of an acquisition time less than 120 s and a spatial resolution < 2 mm, CLI for intraoperative margin assessment using 68Ga could be feasible.
Collapse