Can the Newer Model of Breast-Specific Positron Emission Tomography Reduce the "Blind Area"?

• Published in: Diagnostics (Basel) Vol. 14; no. 18; p. 2068
• Main Authors: Satoh, Yoko, Ishida, Jiro, Inui, Yoshitaka, Takenaka, Akinori, Bando, Shuji, Ishida, Sayuri, Toyama, Hiroshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 19.09.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: blind area; Body mass index; Breast cancer; Cancer; dedicated breast PET; Detectors; Diagnosis; Magnetic resonance imaging; Mammography; Mastectomy; Medical imaging; Medical screening; model change; organ-specific PET; Patients; PET imaging; photomultiplier tube-based PET; Scanners; Sensors; Tomography; Japan; photomultiplier tube-based PET; blind area; model change; organ-specific PET; dedicated breast PET
• ISSN: 2075-4418; 2075-4418
• DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics14182068

: Breast-specific positron emission tomography (PET) provides higher sensitivity and spatial resolution than whole-body PET/CT, but it has a blind area. Mammary glands near the chest wall sometimes present outside the field of view (FOV). A newer, dedicated breast PET (dbPET) model has a cylindrical detector with a larger diameter than previous models, so it is expected to eliminate or reduce blind areas. This study aimed to compare breast images acquired on the new dbPET model with images acquired on an older dbPET model to evaluate blind area reduction. : The nipple-to-chest wall distance (mm), maximum breast cross-sectional area at the FOV edge (cm ) on the dbPET transverse images of the scanners, and the effects of patient age and body mass index (BMI) were compared. : There was no significant difference in the nipple-to-chest wall distance between the models ( = 0.223). The maximum breast cross-sectional area at the FOV edge was significantly larger on the newer model's images ( < 0.001). There was no significant correlation between breast size and the rate of change in both parameters. : The new ring-type dbPET scanners with larger diameter detectors did not reduce the blind area observed on older dbPET scanners.