About this Research Topic
Whole-body PET is a powerful imaging modality for quantifying various physiopathological processes at the molecular level, driven by its two well-grounded foundations: radiolabeled vectorization and quantification. After 30 years of research practice, kinetic PET-based quantification beyond the Standardized Uptake Value (SUV), consisting in modeling the radiotracer cell exchanges from dynamic (4D) PET data, enters a new era, thanks to the larger axial Field-of-Views (AFOVs) of new generations of PET/CT systems (ranging from 25cm to 1m and 2m long AFOVs) and the associated gains in system sensitivity and thus temporal resolution. To optimally harness the superior quantitative virtues of whole-body 4D PET technology, these new molecular imaging opportunities require major paradigm shifts in medical practice.
Due to the very recent emergence of these new quantitative imaging capabilities, the related clinical practice is currently still immature and requires more evidence-based validation. In particular, the most relevant and adoptable way to smoothly integrate PET kinetic modeling into routine practice workflow must be defined in most clinical applications, and the clinical benefit for patient’s outcome must be demonstrated. In addition, to enable the wide dissemination of the benefits of whole-body 4D PET imaging, various 4D PET data acquisition protocols and robust image reconstruction methods need to be designed optimized either for clinical total-body PET systems with very long (1m or 2m) AFOVs, or alternatively for more affordable and more widely available state-of-the-art clinical PET systems of 25-35cm AFOVs. Finally, the move towards whole-body kinetic modeling face numerous methodological challenges in terms of processing, with great opportunities to further insight our understanding of diseases biology from a general multi-organ systemic point of view, such as the investigation of the human brain-heart or brain-gut axis .
In this Research Topic of Frontiers in Nuclear Medicine, we welcome manuscripts focused on dynamic PET studies in the fields of oncology, cardiovascular or inflammation/infection diseases:
· Whole-body dynamic PET-based protocol optimization (acquisition time, input function derivation) tailored for short or long AFOV PET systems.
· PET-based kinetic modeling at the whole-body level (IA-based analyses, optimization).
· Robust multi-parametric 4D PET image reconstruction methods incorporating data correction (e.g. motion, attenuation, timing, input function data corrections)
· Dynamic PET-based quantitative imaging (PET/CT, PET/MRI) for lesions detectability, diagnosis, treatment evaluation, or prognosis purposes.
Due to the very recent emergence of these new quantitative imaging capabilities, the related clinical practice is currently still immature and requires more evidence-based validation. In particular, the most relevant and adoptable way to smoothly integrate PET kinetic modeling into routine practice workflow must be defined in most clinical applications, and the clinical benefit for patient’s outcome must be demonstrated. In addition, to enable the wide dissemination of the benefits of whole-body 4D PET imaging, various 4D PET data acquisition protocols and robust image reconstruction methods need to be designed optimized either for clinical total-body PET systems with very long (1m or 2m) AFOVs, or alternatively for more affordable and more widely available state-of-the-art clinical PET systems of 25-35cm AFOVs. Finally, the move towards whole-body kinetic modeling face numerous methodological challenges in terms of processing, with great opportunities to further insight our understanding of diseases biology from a general multi-organ systemic point of view, such as the investigation of the human brain-heart or brain-gut axis .
In this Research Topic of Frontiers in Nuclear Medicine, we welcome manuscripts focused on dynamic PET studies in the fields of oncology, cardiovascular or inflammation/infection diseases:
· Whole-body dynamic PET-based protocol optimization (acquisition time, input function derivation) tailored for short or long AFOV PET systems.
· PET-based kinetic modeling at the whole-body level (IA-based analyses, optimization).
· Robust multi-parametric 4D PET image reconstruction methods incorporating data correction (e.g. motion, attenuation, timing, input function data corrections)
· Dynamic PET-based quantitative imaging (PET/CT, PET/MRI) for lesions detectability, diagnosis, treatment evaluation, or prognosis purposes.
Keywords: PET, quantification, kinetic modeling, multimodality, molecular imaging, multidimensionality
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
