Evaluation of PET Tracer Binding Recovered by Partial Volume Correction Technique in Case of Hippocampus Atrophy

Analysis of binding potential of cerebral PET tracer have a major interest in clinical applications. Because of the limited resolution of PET, partial volume effect (PVE) affects the quantitative measurements. Therefore, physiological interpretation of functional data may be confusing when signal intensity is affected by structural difference of emitting regions, such as atrophy for example. This study presented here aimed at addressing the impact PVE correction on the BP calculated from small groups of dynamic PET studies. With a well-controlled dynamic PET database of simulated [¹⁸F]MPPF PET data incorporating inter-individual anatomical and biological variability, we estimated the recovery of true binding potential in specific regions and in case of structural atrophy. Partial volume correction based on geometrical transfer matrix calculation was applied to regional kinetics. Input, output and corrected output transport and binding parameters were compared. Results showed an excellent recovery of true values, and revealed the necessity to correct for PVE to avoid false interpretation of binding decrease, specially tested for the hippocampic atrophic case.