Enhancing Ultra-Low-Dose PET/MRI Using Deep Learning Method for Improved Interpretation

Abstract

Motivation: We developed a deep learning model to enhance the image quality of ultra-low dose brain PET. Goal(s): Significantly reducing the injected dose not only minimizes radiation risk in subjects but also provides options for scanning protocols, and more follow-up studies. Approach: We proposed a 3D-Residual Attention U-Net model initially trained on whole-body [18F]FDG PET/MR images. We used transfer learning approach to fine-tune our proposed model on [18F]CPFPX PET/MRI inhouse dataset. Results: We achieved improved metrics compared to U-Net model with average PSNR of 28.02 (U-Net: 21.23), SSIM of 0.81 (U-Net: 0.53), CNR of 0.72 (U-Net: 0.61) and NMSE of 0.33 (U-Net: 0.67). Impact: Our model has potential to generate high-quality PET images from low-dose PET/MR, potentially contribute to implementation of kinetic modelling using PET/MR imaging. Our model is capable of enhancing both whole-body and brain datasets, making it valuable asset for diverse applications.