Objective To investigate the relationship between image quality of PET/CT in automatic tube current modulation and effective dose(ED) of patients and to determine the optimal acquisition scheme.Methods Scanning was performed on anthropomorphic phantom RS-550 using GE Discovery ST-16 or Discovery Elite PET/CT.The same CT acquisition conditions was used:tube voltage 120 kV,pitch 1.375,rotation speed 0.8 s,noise index ranged from 8 to 30,interval 2,automatic tube current low limit 30 mA,high limit ranged from 200 to 350 mA,interval 50 mA.The images were analyzed,and the noise,signal to noise ratio (SNR) and figure of merit (FOM) of main organs in the abdomen were calculated.The relationship between image quality and ED was analyzed.Two-sample t test was used for data analysis.Results The noise of each organ decreased significantly along with the increase of ED until the ED of ST-16 increased to 15 mSv or Elite increased to 12 mSv,then the image noise decreased gently.SNR of each organ image increased along with the increase of ED.The FOM of liver decreased along with the increase of ED,while the FOM of other organs did not change significantly with ED.All image indicators of Elite PET/CT were better than ST-16 PET/CT at the same ED (5-20 mSv),though there was no significant difference (t:0.133-4.701,all P＞0.05).When ED was 5 mSy,the noise of liver with ST-16 was 12.0％ (28.9 vs 25.8)higher than that with Elite,and the SNR and FOM of liver with Elite was 13.9％ (4.1 vs 3.6) and 66.7％ (0.50 vs 0.30) higher than that with ST-16,respectively.Conclusion When the ED caused by the 2 PET/CT systems was between 5-20 mSy,the image quality is improved along with the ED increasing in a certain range.

Objective To investigate the influence of PET/CT imaging conditions (acquisition time, bed overlap, reconstruction matrix, iteration times, filter kernel size, and attenuation correction) on the spatial resolution of images. Methods Two PET/CT devices, GE Discovery Elite and GE Discovery ST-16, were used to scan the elliptical column resolution model in one and two beds (list mode, acquisition time of 6 min). Images were reconstructed under the commonly used clinical reconstruction conditions (Elite: VPFX-S algorithm, ST-16: VUE Point HD algorithm) at 1-6 min/bed, different iteration times of 2-10 times, different filter kernel sizes of 2.0-10.0 mm (Elite), and different reconstruction matrices, with attenuation correction or not. The spatial resolution of reconstructed PET images was represented by the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the line spread function. Results Under the clinical acquisition conditions, when the acquisition time was 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 4 min, 5 min, and 6 min, the FWHM_Elite of spatial resolution at the center of field of view was (4.06 ± 0.08) mm, (4.05 ± 0.20) mm, (4.01 ± 0.01) mm, (4.05 ± 0.07) mm, (4.05 ± 0.03) mm, and (4.08 ± 0.06) mm, and the FWHM_ST-16 was (5.76 ± 0.12) mm, (5.72 ± 0.11) mm, (5.74 ± 0.09) mm, (5.78 ± 0.05) mm, (5.75 ± 0.09) mm, and (5.77 ± 0.07) mm. When the phantom was located in the center of one bed and the overlap of two beds, the line FWHM_Elite at the center was (4.04 ± 0.01) mm and (4.04 ± 0.01) mm, and the FWHM_ST-16 was (5.39 ± 0.19) mm and (5.38 ± 0.07) mm, respectively. The FWHM_Elite at the center was (4.07 ± 0.18) mm, (4.25 ± 0.10) mm, and (4.73 ± 0.08) mm at the matrices of 256 × 256, 192 × 192, and 128 × 128, respectively. The FWHM_Elite at the center was (4.65 ± 0.43) mm, (4.77 ± 0.27) mm, (4.02 ± 0.01) mm, (4.11 ± 0.04) mm, and (9.94 ± 0.01) mm at the filter kernel sizes of 2.0 mm-10.0 mm (interval of 2.0 mm), respectively. The FWHM_Elite at the center was (4.17 ± 0.27) mm, (4.27 ± 0.21) mm, (4.11 ± 0.05) mm, (4.18 ± 0.04) mm, and (4.12 ± 0.06) mm at 2-10 iterations (interval of 2 times), respectively. The FWHM_Elite at the center was (4.14 ± 0.01) mm and (4.18 ± 0.08) mm with and without attenuation correction, respectively. At the same acquisition time and bed, the spatial resolution of Elite images was improved by about 40.57% compared with that of ST-16 images. Conclusion The spatial resolution of images obtained at the matrix of 256 × 256 is higher than that of images obtained at the matrices of 192 × 192 and 128 × 128 in the same model. Elite images have the best spatial resolution at the reconstruction filter kernel size of 6.0 mm. Under the same imaging conditions, Elite images show significantly better spatial resolution compared with ST-16 images. Acquisition time, overlap of beds, iteration times, and attenuation correction have no significant effect on the spatial resolution of PET images.