%0 Journal Article %A John O. Prior %A Nicolas Péguret %A Anastasia Pomoni %A Martin Pappon %A Michele Zeverino %A Bastien Belmondo %A Alban Lovis %A Mahmut Ozsahin %A Monique Vienne %A Jean Bourhis %T Reduction of Respiratory Motion During PET/CT by Pulsatile-Flow Ventilation: A First Clinical Evaluation %D 2016 %R 10.2967/jnumed.115.163386 %J Journal of Nuclear Medicine %P 416-419 %V 57 %N 3 %X Respiratory motion negatively affects PET/CT image quality and quantitation. A novel Pulsatile-Flow Ventilation (PFV) system reducing respiratory motion was applied in spontaneously breathing patients to induce sustained apnea during PET/CT. Methods: Four patients (aged 65 ± 14 y) underwent PET/CT for pulmonary nodule staging (mean, 11 ± 7 mm; range, 5–18 mm) at 63 ± 3 min after 18F-FDG injection and then at 47 ± 7 min afterward, during PFV-induced apnea (with imaging lasting ≥8.5 min). Anterior–posterior thoracic amplitude, SUVmax, and SUVpeak (SUVmean in a 1-cm-diameter sphere) were compared. Results: PFV PET/CT reduced thoracic amplitude (80%), increased mean lesion SUVmax (29%) and SUVpeak (11%), decreased lung background SUVpeak (25%), improved lesion detectability, and increased SUVpeak lesion-to-background ratio (54%). On linear regressions, SUVmax and SUVpeak significantly improved (by 35% and 23%, respectively; P ≤ 0.02). Conclusion: PFV-induced apnea reduces thoracic organ motion and increases lesion SUV, detectability, and delineation, thus potentially affecting patient management by improving diagnosis, prognostication, monitoring, and external-radiation therapy planning. %U https://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/jnumed/57/3/416.full.pdf