Quality assessment of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography imaging in clinical setting: definition of standard quality control parameters for patients treated for lymphoma.

Purpose: We designed standard parameters for quality controls (QCs) of F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) images in the clinical setting, and validated them in both cross-sectional and longitudinal cohorts of patients with lymphoma under treatment.

Methods: The procedure is based on the measurement of mean standardized uptake value (SUV mean) in three specific regions of interest drawn within pulmonary, liver, and bone tissues [reference (Ref)]. Intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility [percentage of coefficient of variation (CV%)] were calculated using PET scans of healthy participants.