PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Martin T. King
AU  - Colin M. Carpenter
AU  - Conroy Sun
AU  - Xiaowei Ma
AU  - Quynh-Thu Le
AU  - John B. Sunwoo
AU  - Zhen Cheng
AU  - Guillem Pratx
AU  - Lei Xing
TI  - β-Radioluminescence Imaging: A Comparative Evaluation with Cerenkov Luminescence Imaging
AID  - 10.2967/jnumed.115.158337
DP  - 2015 Sep 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 1458--1464
VI  - 56
IP  - 9
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/56/9/1458.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/56/9/1458.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2015 Sep 01; 56
AB  - Cerenkov luminescence imaging (CLI) can provide high-resolution images of 18F-FDG–avid tumors but requires prolonged acquisition times because of low photon sensitivity. In this study, we proposed a new modality, termed β-radioluminescence imaging (β-RLI), which incorporates a scintillator with a γ-rejection strategy for imaging β particles. We performed a comparative evaluation of β-RLI with CLI in both in vitro and in vivo systems. Methods: Using in vitro phantoms, we characterized the photon sensitivity and resolution of CLI and β-RLI. We also conducted a series of in vivo experiments with xenograft mouse models using both amelanotic (A375, UMSCC1-Luc) and melanotic (B16F10-Luc) cell lines. The B16F10 and UMSCC1 cell lines were transfected with the luciferase gene (Luc). CLI was acquired over 300 s, and β-RLI was acquired using two 10-s acquisitions. We correlated 18F-FDG activities, as assessed by PET, with tumor radiances for both β-RLI and CLI. We also compared tumor signal-to-background ratios (SBRs) between these modalities for amelanotic and melanotic tumors. Results: For in vitro experiments, the photon sensitivity for β-RLI was 560-fold greater than that for CLI. However, the spatial resolution for β-RLI (4.4 mm) was inferior to that of CLI (1.0 mm). For in vivo experiments, correlations between 18F-FDG activity and tumor radiance were 0.52 (P < 0.01) for β-RLI, 0.81 (P = 0.01) for amelanotic lesions with CLI, and −0.08 (negative contrast; P = 0.80) for melanotic lesions with CLI. Nine of 13 melanotic lesions had an SBR less than 1 for CLI, despite an SBR greater than 1 among all lesions for β-RLI. Conclusion: β-RLI can produce functional images of both amelanotic and melanotic tumors in a shorter time frame than CLI. Further engineering developments are needed to realize the full clinical potential of this modality.