Professor of Radiology University of California, Davis, United States
Disclosure(s): United Imaging Healthcare: Grant/Research Support (Ongoing)
Disclosure(s):
Guobao Wang, PhD: United Imaging Healthcare: Grant/Research Support (Ongoing)
Tracer kinetic modeling in positron emission tomography (PET) is a technique that uses mathematical models to extract physiologically important parameters from dynamic PET imaging data to quantify molecular processes. Conventionally, dynamic PET and kinetic modeling have been mainly limited to single organs (e.g., brain or heart) and suffer from low-count challenges for parametric imaging, though whole-body implementation is possible. The advent of total-body PET systems provides a very high level of detection sensitivity and simultaneous coverage of the entire body for dynamic imaging. This brings several potential benefits for tracer kinetic modeling and parametric imaging, including more reliable estimation of tracer kinetics for clinical use, noninvasive derivation of blood input function, and total-body parametric imaging of micro-kinetic parameters. This talk will discuss the potential benefits, technical challenges and developments, and examples of ongoing and potential applications of total-body kinetic modeling and parametric imaging for drug development and evaluation.
