The IAEA published in 2009 a technical reference book that provides guidance on acceptance testing of PET and PET/CT scanners, including guidelines for routine quality control of the equipment.
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Human Health Campus
Human Health Campus
Tutorial videos for Quality Control tests on PET/CT scanners
2017
E-learning Course
The PET/CT Quality Control tests described in this publication adhere closely to the NEMA standard. As a supplementary training tool, 8 tutorial videos were produced, demonstrating, in practice, the procedures to perform the tests described in the IAEA Human Health Series No. 1 on Quality Assurance for PET and PET/CT Systems.
- Daily PET/CT QC test
- Radioactivity concentration calibration
- Spatial resolution
- Sensitivity
- Scatter fraction, count losses and randoms measurements
- Image quality
- Accuracy of corrections for count losses and randoms
- Accuracy of PET/CT image registration
Additional information on PET/CT Quality Control tests can be found in the IAEA Human Health Series No. 27 PET/CT Atlas on Quality Control and Image Artefacts and the IAEA Nuclear Medicine Physics Handbook.
Acknowledgement
The production of the tutorial videos for Quality Control tests on PET/CT scanners was supported by the Peaceful Uses Initiative (PUI) project of the United States of America.
Disclaimer
The mention of names of specific companies or products does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA.
Data acquisition and analysis throughout these videos have been done on GE PET/CT scanners due to the availability of these systems at the location of the video shoot. Similar acquisition and analysis can be also performed on PET/CT systems from other manufacturers with slight modifications to allow for differences in software and hardware tools.
Finally, the majority of the tests performed in these videos were conducted without radioactivity present in the phantoms. When performing these tests with radioactive sources, strict adherence to radiation safety procedures and regulations should be exercised.
Contributors
The tutorial videos for Quality Control tests on PET/CT scanners were developed by Osama Mawlawi, PhD (Department of Imaging Physics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA) with the assistance of Joseph Alexis and Carine Rizk. The IAEA staff responsible for this activity is Gian Luca Poli, PhD from the Section of Dosimetry and Medical Radiation Physics (DMRP) of the Division of Human Health at the IAEA.