Journal article

Whole-body voxel-based internal dosimetry using deep learning.

  • Akhavanallaf A Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • Shiri I Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • Arabi H Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • Zaidi H Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland. habib.zaidi@hcuge.ch.
  • 2020-09-03
Published in:
  • European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. - 2020
English PURPOSE
In the era of precision medicine, patient-specific dose calculation using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations is deemed the gold standard technique for risk-benefit analysis of radiation hazards and correlation with patient outcome. Hence, we propose a novel method to perform whole-body personalized organ-level dosimetry taking into account the heterogeneity of activity distribution, non-uniformity of surrounding medium, and patient-specific anatomy using deep learning algorithms.


METHODS
We extended the voxel-scale MIRD approach from single S-value kernel to specific S-value kernels corresponding to patient-specific anatomy to construct 3D dose maps using hybrid emission/transmission image sets. In this context, we employed a Deep Neural Network (DNN) to predict the distribution of deposited energy, representing specific S-values, from a single source in the center of a 3D kernel composed of human body geometry. The training dataset consists of density maps obtained from CT images and the reference voxelwise S-values generated using Monte Carlo simulations. Accordingly, specific S-value kernels are inferred from the trained model and whole-body dose maps constructed in a manner analogous to the voxel-based MIRD formalism, i.e., convolving specific voxel S-values with the activity map. The dose map predicted using the DNN was compared with the reference generated using MC simulations and two MIRD-based methods, including Single and Multiple S-Values (SSV and MSV) and Olinda/EXM software package.


RESULTS
The predicted specific voxel S-value kernels exhibited good agreement with the MC-based kernels serving as reference with a mean relative absolute error (MRAE) of 4.5 ± 1.8 (%). Bland and Altman analysis showed the lowest dose bias (2.6%) and smallest variance (CI: - 6.6, + 1.3) for DNN. The MRAE of estimated absorbed dose between DNN, MSV, and SSV with respect to the MC simulation reference were 2.6%, 3%, and 49%, respectively. In organ-level dosimetry, the MRAE between the proposed method and MSV, SSV, and Olinda/EXM were 5.1%, 21.8%, and 23.5%, respectively.


CONCLUSION
The proposed DNN-based WB internal dosimetry exhibited comparable performance to the direct Monte Carlo approach while overcoming the limitations of conventional dosimetry techniques in nuclear medicine.
Language
  • English
Open access status
hybrid
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/100569
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