Development of a database of realistic simulated whole body [18F]FDG PET images for lymphoma

The purpose of this study is to generate and distribute a realistic database of simulated whole body [18F]FDG PET oncology images. As far as we know, this database is the first addressing the need of simulated [18F]FDG PET oncology images by providing a series of whole-body (WB) patient images with well controlled inserted lesions of calibrated uptakes. It also fulfills the requirements of detection performance studies by including normal and pathological cases. The realism of the database is based on three points: firstly, we built a complex model of [18F]FDG patient based on the Zubal phantom in combination with activity distributions in the main organs of interest derived from a series of 70 clinical cases. Secondly, we proposed a realistic model of lesions extent corresponding to lymphoma patients. The lesion contrast levels were derived from a human observer study so as to cover the entire range of detectability. Finally, the simulated database was generated with the PET-SORTEO Monte-Carlo simulation tool that was fully validated against the geometry of the ECAT EXACT HR+ (CTI/Siemens Knoxville). The oncoPET_DB database is actually composed of 75 whole body PET simulated images, including 50 normal cases coming from different realizations of noise of the healthy model and 25 pathological cases including lesions of calibrated uptakes and various diameters. Such a database will be useful to evaluate algorithms that may impact contrast recovery (PVE, reconstruction), to perform observer studies or to assess computer aided diagnosis methods. Perspectives include enriching the present database with new pathological and normal cases and making it available to the scientific community.