Abstract
The aims of this study were to determine how different background regions of interest (ROIs) around the kidney represent true background activity in over- and underlying tissues in (177)Lu-DOTA-octreatate ((177)Lu-DOTATATE) treatments and to determine the influence of the background positions on the kidney activity concentration estimates by the conjugate view (ConjV) and posterior view (PostV) methods. The analysis was performed in single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images of 20 patients, acquired 24 h post injection of a (177)Lu-DOTATATE treatment, by a computer algorithm that created planar images from the SPECT data. The ratio between the activity concentration in the background and the true background varied from 0.36 to 2.08 [coefficient of variation (CV) = 25-181 %] and from 0.44 to 1.52 (CV = 16-70 %) for the right and left kidneys, respectively. The activity concentration estimate in the kidneys was most accurate with the PostV method using a background ROI surrounding the whole kidney, and this combination might be an alternative planar method for improved kidney dosimetry in the (177)Lu-DOTATATE treatments.