Harmonization of [(11)C]raclopride brain PET images from the HR+ and HRRT: method development and validation in human subjects

BACKGROUND: There has been an ongoing need to compare and combine the results of new PET imaging studies conducted with [(11)C]raclopride with older data. This typically means harmonizing data across different scanners. Previous harmonization studies have utilized either phantoms or human subjects, but the use of both phantoms and humans in one harmonization study is not common. The purpose herein was (1) to use phantom images to develop an inter-scanner harmonization technique and (2) to test the harmonization technique in human subjects. METHODS: To develop the harmonization technique (Experiment 1), the Iida brain phantom was filled with F-18 solution and scanned on the two scanners in question (HRRT, HR+, Siemens/CTI). Phantom images were used to determine the optimal isotropic Gaussian filter to harmonize HRRT and HR+ images. To evaluate the harmonization on human images (Experiment 2), inter-scanner variability was calculated using [(11)C]raclopride scans of 3 human subjects on both the HRRT and HR+ using percent difference (PD) in striatal non-displaceable binding potential (BP(ND)) between HR+ and HRRT (with and without Gaussian smoothing). Finally, (Experiment 3), PD(T/RT) was calculated for test–retest (T/RT) variability of striatal BP(ND) for 8 human subjects scanned twice on the HR+. RESULTS: Experiment 1 identified the optimal filter as a Gaussian with a 4.5 mm FWHM. Experiment 2 resulted in 13.9% PD for unfiltered HRRT and 3.71% for HRRT filtered with 4.5 mm. Experiment 3 yielded 5.24% PD(T/RT) for HR+. CONCLUSIONS: The PD results show that the variability of harmonized HRRT is less than the T/RT variability of the HR+. The harmonization technique makes it possible for BP(ND) estimates from the HRRT to be compared to (and/or combined with) those from the HR+ without adding to overall variability. Our approach is applicable to all pairs of scanners still in service. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40658-022-00457-z.