Abstract:
Selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) is a treatment option to treat inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). SIRT is the technique that delivers radiopharmaceutical, Yttrium-90 (90Y) microsphere to target lesion by angiographic intervention. After SIRT, internal pair production of 90Y enables to be imaged with positron emission tomography (PET) for radiopharmaceutical localization and dosimetry. So, the aims of this study were to evaluate the feasibility of 90Y image using PET imaging and to examine the factors related to the image quality and quantity of 90Y-PET imaging. A NEMA IEC PET Body phantom with six fillable spheres was filled with Yttrium trichloride (90YCl3). The sphere to background ratio of 8:1 and activity concentration 1 MBq/mL were used. The image was acquired with 10, 15, 30, 60, and 120 minutes. The image quality was interpreted by three experienced nuclear medicine physicians. The Kappa test was used to interpret agreement between observers. For qualitative results, long acquisition times (60 and 120 minutes) were seen in all spheres. In shorter acquisition times (10, 15, and 30 minutes), the small spheres (10 and 13 mm) were not seen. The Kappa test results showed perfect and substantial agreement between physicians. The hot contrast, contrast recovery, signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio, and visibility of sphere (VS) using the Rose's criterion for a human observer were used to analyze the quantitative result. Accordingly, the hot contrast was higher when acquisition time was decreased due to amplification of noise, meanwhile SNR and VS increased when acquisition time was increased. The noise in this study was greater in smallest sphere and shortest acquisition time. In conclusion based on this study, 30-minute acquisition time could use to detect small lesion. However, the sphere less than 13 mm could not be concluded because of noise fluctuation. The good image quality comes with long acquisition time. Nonetheless, long acquisition time might affect the patients' discomfort and patients' motion artefacts.