Effect of Bayesian-penalized likelihood reconstruction on [13N]-NH3 rest perfusion quantification

Myocardial blood flow (mbf) imaging is used in patients with suspected cardiac sarcoidosis, and also in stress/rest studies. the accuracy of mbf is dependent on imaging parameters such as new reconstruction methodologies. in this work, we aim to assess the impact of a novel pet reconstruction algorithm (bayesian-penalized likelihood—bpl) on the values determined from the calculation of [13n]-nh3 mbf values. data from 21 patients undergoing rest mbf evaluation [13n]-nh3 as part of sarcoidosis imaging were retrospectively analyzed. each scan was reconstructed with a range of bpl coefficients (1-500), and standard clinical fbp and osem reconstructions. mbf values were calculated via an automated software routine for all datasets. reconstruction of [13n]-nh3 dynamic data using the bpl, osem, or fbp reconstruction showed no quantitative differences for the calculation of territorial or global mbf (p = .97). image noise was lower using osem or bpl reconstructions than fbp and noise from bpl reached levels seen in osem images between b = 300 and b = 400. intrasubject differences between all reconstructions over all patients in respect of all cardiac territories showed a maximum coefficient of variation of 9.74%. quantitation of mbf via kinetic modeling of cardiac rest mbf by [13n]-nh3 is minimally affected by the use of a bpl reconstruction technique, with bpl images presenting with less noise.