Masters Theses

Yuexin Wu

Date of Award

12-1990

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Nuclear Engineering

Major Professor

Laurence F. Miller

Committee Members

G. T. Smith, B. R. Upadhyaya, R. E. Uhrig

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to improve quantitative Positron Emission Tomography (PET). This involved the development of software to analyze PET scan data, validation of a two-compartment model and characterization of a detector that measures the input function to the model. Validation of the two compartment modeling method to obtain the regional myocardial blood flow (RMBF) was accomplished by comparing results from analyses of dynamic PET scans with data from tissue samples. The calculation of RMBF in a heart may aid in the determination of cardiac muscle viability in patients with coronary artery disease and should assist the therapist in a decision for high cost bypass surgery. A PET scanner can measure the concentration of positron emitting radioisotopes within an object. After injection of radioactive tracer into human body, the amount of activity measured in tissue depends on the kinetics of the metabolic process and on the transport properties between the blood and cells. The metabolic process kinetics are obtained by measuring the tracer dynamics. The two compartment modeling method is used to represent the tracer dynamics. The parameters in the model are directly associated with physiological or biochemical meaningful information such as RMBF in the heart. The validation of the model shows that the two compartment modeling method can be used to calculate RMBF. It overcomes clinical difficulties of previous methods. A maximum likelihood method is used in the model identification and is performed by a software package. A comparison of the result obtained by this method and the previously used "firstpass" method shows that this method provides more accurate results. The evaluation of the detector system for measurement of the model input function indicates that the detector studied has an acceptable efficiency for data acquisition.

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