Feasibility Study of ¹⁸ F-FDG PET Short-Duration Scan in Underweight Patients with Lung Cancer

This retrospective study investigated the feasibility of short-duration ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT imaging for underweight patients with lung cancer. <b>Methods:</b> Short-duration imaging conditions were established so that the noise-equivalent count density satisfied the reference level proposed by the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine. <b>Results:</b> Scan time could be reduced from 120 to 52 s/bed position (a 57% reduction) by optimizing Bayesian penalized likelihood (Q.Clear) reconstruction parameters using a β of 650 while preserving image noise levels similar to those in standard-duration imaging (β = 350). Although SUV_max decreased under the shorter-scan condition, the change in SUV_peak was approximately -5% for lesions with diameters of more than 20 mm. <b>Conclusion:</b> The acquisition time for ¹⁸F-FDG PET for underweight lung cancer patients can be shortened by 57% without compromising image quality. SUV_peak appears to be a reliable, robust quantitative metric for evaluating larger lesions under such conditions.