RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Noninvasive Quantification of Myocardial 11C-Meta-Hydroxyephedrine Kinetics JF Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO J Nucl Med FD Society of Nuclear Medicine SP 1376 OP 1381 DO 10.2967/jnumed.115.167437 VO 57 IS 9 A1 Hendrik J. Harms A1 Marc C. Huisman A1 Mischa T. Rijnierse A1 Henri Greuter A1 Yu-Lung Hsieh A1 Stefan de Haan A1 Robert C. Schuit A1 Paul Knaapen A1 Mark Lubberink A1 Adriaan A. Lammertsma YR 2016 UL http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/57/9/1376.abstract AB 11C-meta-hydroxyephedrine (11C-HED) kinetics in the myocardium can be quantified using a single-tissue-compartment model together with a metabolite-corrected arterial blood sampler input function (BSIF). The need for arterial blood sampling, however, limits clinical applicability. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of replacing arterial sampling with imaging-derived input function (IDIF) and venous blood samples. Methods: Twenty patients underwent 60-min dynamic 11C-HED PET/CT scans with online arterial blood sampling. Thirteen of these patients also underwent venous blood sampling. Data were reconstructed using both 3-dimensional row-action maximum-likelihood algorithm (3DR) and a time-of-flight (TF) list-mode reconstruction algorithm. For each reconstruction, IDIF results were compared with BSIF results. In addition, IDIF results obtained with venous blood samples and with a transformed venous-to-arterial metabolite correction were compared with results obtained with arterial metabolite corrections. Results: Correlations between IDIF- and BSIF-derived K1 and VT were high (r2 > =0.89 for 3DR and TF). Slopes of the linear fits were significantly different from 1 for K1, for both 3DR (slope = 0.94) and TF (slope = 1.06). For VT, the slope of the linear fit was different from 1 for TF (slope = 0.93) but not for 3DR (slope = 0.98). Use of venous blood data introduced a large bias in VT (r2 = 0.96, slope = 0.84) and a small bias in K1 (r2 = 0.99, slope = 0.98). Use of a second-order polynomial venous-to-arterial transformation was robust and greatly reduced bias in VT (r2 = 0.97, slope = 0.99) with no effect on K1. Conclusion: IDIF yielded precise results for both 3DR and TF. Venous blood samples can be used for absolute quantification of 11C-HED studies, provided a venous-to-arterial transformation is applied. A venous-to-arterial transformation enables noninvasive, absolute quantification of 11C-HED studies.