Evaluation of using small volume of interest regions for clinical kidney dosimetry in

Segmentation of the whole-kidney parenchyma (WKP) is considered the reference method for kidney dosimetry of radiopharmaceuticals, as it provides the average absorbed dose to the fully delineated WKP. However manual segmentation of the WKP is time consuming, and automated segmentation requires operator verification and potential manual adjustments to the VOI. The aim is to determine if a small volume of interest (SV) method can generate similar kidney absorbed doses as the WKP method.

methodsWe obtained SPECT/CT of 18 patients at 24, 48, and 168 h after injection of [

resultsThe mean RCs of the WKP volumes (31-243 mL) in non-filtered ASCC-SPECT and AC-SPECT were 0.85 (0.73-0.90) and 0.62 (0.46-0.51), respectively. In non-filtered images, the absorbed dose was overestimated by a factor of 1.22. However, applying a Gaussian filter with a kernel size of approximately 5 mm yielded absorbed dose estimates comparable to the reference WKP method. The accuracy of kidney dosimetry calculation based on one SV

conclusionThe small volume of interest (SV) method can provide absorbed dose estimates comparable to the whole-kidney parenchyma (WKP) method when optimized. Non-filtered images overestimated doses by 1.22, but applying a 5 mm Gaussian filter aligned SV results with the WKP method. Using multiple VOIs improved accuracy, with five 2 mL SVs achieving 8.3%. The SV method provides a less time-consuming alternative to WKP; however, its implementation is recommended to be validated and adjusted against a reference method.