AUTHOR=Menendez Maria I. , Moore Richard R. , Abdel-Rasoul Mahmoud , Wright Chadwick L. , Fernandez Soledad , Jackson Rebecca D. , Knopp Michael V. 

TITLE=[18F] Sodium Fluoride Dose Reduction Enabled by Digital Photon Counting PET/CT for Evaluation of Osteoblastic Activity

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.725118

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2021.725118

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=<p>The aim of the study was to assess the quality and reproducibility of reducing the injected [<sup>18</sup>F] sodium fluoride ([<sup>18</sup>F]NaF) dose while maintaining diagnostic imaging quality in bone imaging in a preclinical skeletal model using digital photon counting PET (dPET) detector technology. Beagles (<italic>n</italic> = 9) were administered three different [<sup>18</sup>F]NaF doses: 111 MBq (<italic>n</italic> = 5), 20 MBq (<italic>n</italic> = 5), and 1.9 MBq (<italic>n</italic> = 9). Imaging started ≃45 min post-injection for ≃30 min total acquisition time. Images were reconstructed using Time-of-Flight, ultra-high definition (voxel size of 1 × 1 × 1 mm<sup>3</sup>), with 3 iterations and 3 subsets. Point spread function was modeled and Gaussian filtering was applied. Skeleton qualitative and quantitative molecular image assessment was performed. The overall diagnostic quality of all images scored excellent (61%) and acceptable (39%) by all the reviewers. [<sup>18</sup>F]NaF SUV<sub>mean</sub> showed no statistically significant differences among the three doses in any of the region of interest assessed. This study demonstrated that a 60-fold [<sup>18</sup>F]NaF dose reduction was not significantly different from the highest dose, and it had not significant effect on overall image quality and quantitative accuracy. In the future, ultra-low dose [<sup>18</sup>F]NaF dPET/CT imaging may significantly decrease PET radiation exposure to preclinical subjects and personnel.</p>