Feasibility Study of (18)F-FDG PET Short-Duration Scan in Underweight Patients with Lung Cancer.

This retrospective study investigated the feasibility of short-duration F-FDG PET/CT imaging for underweight patients with lung cancer. Short-duration imaging conditions were established so that the noise-equivalent count density satisfied the reference level proposed by the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine. Scan time could be reduced from 120 to 52 s/bed position (a 57% reduction) by optimizing Bayesian penalized likelihood (Q.Clear) reconstruction parameters using a β of 650 while preserving image noise levels similar to those in standard-duration imaging β = 350. Although SUV decreased under the shorter-scan condition, the change in SUV was approximately -5% for lesions with diameters of more than 20 mm. The acquisition time for F-FDG PET for underweight lung cancer patients can be shortened by 57% without compromising image quality. SUV appears to be a reliable, robust quantitative metric for evaluating larger lesions under such conditions.