Short-term PET-derived kinetic estimation for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: a combination of the maximum-slope method and dual-input three-compartment model

BACKGROUND: Kinetic estimation provides fitted parameters related to blood flow perfusion and fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG) transport and intracellular metabolism to characterize hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) but usually requires 60 min or more for dynamic PET, which is time-consuming and impractical in a busy clinical setting and has poor patient tolerance. METHODS: This study preliminarily evaluated the equivalence of liver kinetic estimation between short-term (5-min dynamic data supplemented with 1-min static data at 60 min postinjection) and fully 60-min dynamic protocols and whether short-term (18)F-FDG PET-derived kinetic parameters using a three-compartment model can be used to discriminate HCC from the background liver tissue. Then, we proposed a combined model, a combination of the maximum-slope method and a three-compartment model, to improve kinetic estimation. RESULTS: There is a strong correlation between the kinetic parameters K(1) ~ k(3), HPI and [Formula: see text] in the short-term and fully dynamic protocols. With the three-compartment model, HCCs were found to have higher k(2), HPI and k(3) values than background liver tissues, while K(1), k(4) and [Formula: see text] values were not significantly different between HCCs and background liver tissues. With the combined model, HCCs were found to have higher HPI, K(1) and k(2), k(3) and [Formula: see text] values than background liver tissues; however, the k(4) value was not significantly different between HCCs and the background liver tissues. CONCLUSIONS: Short-term PET is closely equivalent to fully dynamic PET for liver kinetic estimation. Short-term PET-derived kinetic parameters can be used to distinguish HCC from background liver tissue, and the combined model improves the kinetic estimation. CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT: Short-term PET could be used for hepatic kinetic parameter estimation. The combined model could improve the estimation of liver kinetic parameters. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13244-023-01442-5.