What question did this study set out to answer?

This study aims to develop and validate a synthesis model for PET images using common tracers to improve accessibility in PD research.

June 13, 2026

Cross-Tracer Synthesis Model of 11 C-CFT and 18 F-DOPA PET Images from 18 F-FDG for Parkinson's Disease

Key Points

This study aims to develop and validate a synthesis model for PET images using common tracers to improve accessibility in PD research.
Developed a cross-tracer PET synthesis model based on a diffusion model.
Trained on 18F-FDG and 11C-CFT datasets and fine-tuned with 18F-FDG and 18F-DOPA datasets.
Conducted visual assessments and voxel-wise comparisons between synthetic and real images.
Synthetic 11C-CFT images achieved an average PSNR of 36.22 and an SSIM of 0.96.
Synthetic 18F-DOPA images had PSNR of 29.79 and an SSIM of 0.95.
No significant differences were found in visual assessments or error maps between synthetic and real images.

Abstract

Positron emission tomography (PET) with various tracers plays a critical role in Parkinson's disease (PD) studies. However, the clinical application of PET with novel or less-available tracers is limited by factors such as high cost and short half-life. To address this limitation, we developed a cross-tracer PET synthesis model based on diffusion model to directly synthesize cross-tracer PET images from widely used18F-FDG PET images for PD studies. The network was initially trained on18F-FDG and11C-CFT datasets, and subsequently fine-tuned on18F-FDG and18F-DOPA datasets. After anonymization, synthetic images were mixed with real ones and underwent visual assessment by radiologists. Quantitative analyses were further performed through voxel-wise comparisons and regional error analysis between synthetic and real images. Visual assessment indicated that the synthetic11C-CFT and18F-DOPA PET images were comparable to real images in terms of quality, noise, and striatal conspicuity, with no significant differences observed in the error maps. Synthetic11C-CFT images achieved an average PSNR of 36. 22 and an SSIM of 0. 96, whereas18F-DOPA images yielded values of 29. 79 and 0. 95, respectively. Bland-Altman analysis indicated high consistency between synthetic and real images. The average standardized uptake value (SUV) bias was 0. 0130. 032 SUV for11C-CFT and -0. 1750. 149 SUV for18F-DOPA. The proposed cross-tracer PET synthesis model achieves comparable performance with11C-CFT or18F-DOPA PET imaging for PD studies.

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