Simplification of PET studies

Within the constraints of the tracer and the instrumentation, a number of trade-offs must be evaluated in determining the final form of the model [Carson 1991]:

Is it necessary to measure the input function?
Are arterial samples required for quantitation, or can it be done with venous samples?
Is continuous blood sampling necessary or can it be done with manual samples?
Is it necessary to measure the fractions of tracer metabolites in plasma?
How long PET scanning is needed?
How many time frames we need, or is a single scan sufficient?
Are multiple tracer injections under different conditions required?
Can parameter estimates be calculated on a pixel-by-pixel basis to generate a functional image?

Simplified methods must be validated for the clinical or routine research use. Examples of such validation studies have been performed by Muxic et al. (2000) and Krak et al. (2003).

References:

Carson RE. The development and application of mathematical models in nuclear medicine. J Nucl Med. 1991; 32: 2206-2208.

Krak NC, van der Hoeven JJM, Hoekstra OS, Twisk JWR, van der Wall E, Lammertsma AA. Measuring [¹⁸F]FDG uptake in breast cancer during chemotherapy: comparison of analytical methods. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2003; 30: 674-681.

Muzic RF Jr, Saidel GM, Zhu N, Nelson AD, Zheng L, Berridge MS. Iterative optimal design of PET experiments for estimating β-adrenergic receptor concentration. Med Biol Eng Comput. 2000; 38: 593-602.

Wallius E, Nyman M, Oikonen V, Hietala J, Ruotsalainen U. Voxel-based NK1 receptor occupancy measurements with [¹⁸F]SPA-RQ and positron emission tomography: A procedure for assessing errors from image reconstruction and physiological modeling. Mol Imaging Biol. 2007; 9(5):284-294.