Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology (Korean J Nucl Med Technol)

Open access, Peer Reviewed

Indexed in KCI, DOAJ

pISSN 1229-9901
eISSN 2982-8406

Original article

Feasibility Study on the Application of Bed Overlap in Brain PET/CT Imaging

1Department of Nuclear Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
2Department of Nuclear Medicine, National Cancer Center, Ilsan, Korea

Correspondence to Hyun-Seung Cha, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, 81, Irwon-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 06351, Republic of Korea. Tel: +82-02-3410-6286, E-mail: chs96817@naver.com

Volume 30, Number 2, Article 20, November 2026. Korean J Nucl Med Technol 2026;30(2):20. https://doi.org/10.12972/kjnmt.2026.30.2.20
Received on September 22, 2026, Revised on October 12, 2026, Accepted on October 14, 2026, Published on November 30, 2026.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose: Brain PET/CT examinations are generally performed using a 1 Bed acquisition. With the increasing use of PET/CT systems with an extended axial field of view (AFOV), the overlap region between adjacent Bed positions can be utilized for image acquisition. This study aimed to evaluate differences in relative sensitivity, image quality, and quantitative characteristics between 1 Bed and 2 Bed overlap acquisitions using a PET/CT system with a 30 ㎝ AFOV and to evaluate the applicability of 2 Bed overlap acquisition for Brain PET/CT examinations. Materials and Methods: Images were acquired using a GE Discovery MI Gen2 PET/CT scanner (GE HealthCare, Milwaukee, WI, USA) with a 30 ㎝ AFOV. For the evaluation of relative sensitivity, a Custom-made Phantom and a PET Annulus Phantom were used for 1 Bed and 2 Bed overlap acquisitions, and relative sensitivity was compared over the same axial image range. For image quality and quantitative evaluation, a Hoffman 3D Brain Phantom was scanned under three acquisition conditions: 1 Bed center, 1 Bed edge, and 2 Bed overlap. Image quality and quantitative characteristics were evaluated using the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), percent coefficient of variation (%COV), and mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean). Results: The relative sensitivity of the 2 Bed overlap acquisition was slightly higher than that of the 1 Bed acquisition, with mean values 2.0% higher (range, 0.1–5.8%) for the Custom-made Phantom and 1.2% higher (range, 0.1–2.0%) for the PET Annulus Phantom. In the Hoffman 3D Brain Phantom, the 2 Bed overlap acquisition showed more favorable image quality metrics than the 1 Bed acquisitions. Compared with the 1 Bed center and edge acquisitions, respectively, SNR was higher by 3.9–15.2% and 19.8–35.0%, CNR was higher by 3.4–21.0% and 8.5–37.0%, and %COV was lower by 3.7–13.2% and 16.4–25.9%. In the quantitative evaluation, SUVmean values in the frontal and occipital lobes were generally similar across the three acquisition conditions. Conclusion: The difference in relative sensitivity between the 1 Bed and 2 Bed overlap acquisitions was small. However, the 2 Bed overlap acquisition showed higher SNR and CNR and lower %COV than the 1 Bed acquisitions. SUVmean values in the frontal and occipital lobes were generally similar across the three acquisition conditions. These findings suggest that 2 Bed overlap acquisition may be considered as an alternative acquisition strategy for Brain PET/CT using a 30 ㎝ AFOV PET/CT system. Further studies using standardized NEMA NU 2 sensitivity measurements and clinical data are warranted to evaluate the clinical applicability of this acquisition strategy.
Keywords

Axial Field-of-View, Overlap, Sensitivity

Section