A novel statistical analysis method to improve the detection of hepatic foci of 111In-octreotide in SPECT/CT imaging

Abstract

Background: Low uptake ratios, high noise, poor resolution, and low contrast all combine to make the detection of neuroendocrine liver tumours by 111In-octreotide single photon emission tomography (SPECT) imaging a challenge. The aim of this study was to develop a segmentation analysis method that could improve the accuracy of hepatic neuroendocrine tumour detection. Methods: Our novel segmentation was benchmarked by a retrospective analysis of patients categorized as either 111In-octreotide positive (111In-octreotide(+)) or 111In-octreotide negative (111In-octreotide(−)) for liver tumours. Following a 3-year follow-up period, involving multiple imaging modalities, we further segregated 111In-octreotide-negative patients into two groups: one with no confirmed liver tumours (111In-octreotide(−)/radtech(−)) and the other, now diagnosed with liver tumours (111In-octreotide(−)/radtech(+)). We retrospectively applied our segmentation analysis to see if it could have detected these previously missed tumours using 111In-octreotide. Our methodology subdivided the liver and determined normalized numbers of uptake foci (nNUF), at various threshold values, using a connected-component labelling algorithm. Plots of nNUF against the threshold index (ThI) were generated. ThI was defined as follows: ThI = (cmax − cthr)/cmax, where cmax is the maximal threshold value for obtaining at least one, two voxel sized, uptake focus; cthr is the voxel threshold value. The maximal divergence between the nNUF values for 111In-octreotide(−)/radtech(−), and 111In-octreotide(+) livers, was used as the optimal nNUF value for tumour detection. We also corrected for any influence of the mean activity concentration on ThI. The nNUF versus ThI method (nNUFTI) was then used to reanalyze the 111In-octreotide(−)/radtech(−) and 111In-octreotide(−)/radtech(+) groups. Results: Of a total of 53 111In-octreotide(−) patients, 40 were categorized as 111In-octreotide(−)/radtech(−) and 13 as 111In-octreotide(−)/radtech(+) group. Optimal separation of the nNUF values for 111In-octreotide(−)/radtech(−) and 111In-octreotide(+) groups was defined at the nNUF value of 0.25, to the right of the bell shaped nNUFTI curve. ThIs at this nNUF value were dependent on the mean activity concentration and therefore normalized to generate nThI; a significant difference in nThI values was found between the 111In-octreotide(−)/radtech(−) and the 111In-octreotide(−)/radtech(+) groups (P < 0.01). As a result, four of the 13 111In-octreotide(−)/radtech(+) livers were redesigned as 111In-octreotide(+). Conclusions: The nNUFTI method has the potential to improve the diagnosis of liver tumours using 111In-octreotide.