Room 202
Purpose: Perform precision dosimetry in yttrium-90 (⁹⁰Y) radioembolization through CT imaging of radiopaque microspheres in a rabbit liver model and compare extracted dose metrics to those produced from conventional PET-based dosimetry.
Methods: A calibration phantom was designed to contain posts with nominal microsphere concentrations of 0.5 mg/mL, 5.0 mg/mL, and 25.0 mg/mL. The mean Hounsfield unit (HU) was extracted from post volumes to generate a calibration curve to relate HU to microsphere concentration. A nominal bolus of 40 mg of microspheres was administered to the livers of eight rabbits followed by PET/CT imaging. A CT-based activity distribution was calculated through the application of the calibration curve to the CT image data. Post-treatment dosimetry was performed through the convolution of ⁹⁰Y dose-voxel kernels and the PET- and CT-based cumulated activity distributions. The mean dose to the liver from the PET- and CT-based dose distributions was compared through linear regression and Bland-Altman analysis.
Results: A linear least-squares fit to the HU and microsphere concentration data derived from the calibration phantom confirmed a strong, positive correlation (r²>0.99) with a slope of 14.13 HU/(mg/mL). Linear regression demonstrated a poor correlation between the mean liver dose derived from PET- and CT-based dosimetry (r²=0.37). Bland-Altman analysis predicted that CT-based dosimetry provides, on average, a mean liver dose 15.0 Gy larger than the mean liver dose derived from PET-based dosimetry. The dose distribution within the liver was shown to be significantly more heterogeneous when implementing CT-based dosimetry relative to PET-based dosimetry with an average coefficient of variation of 1.99 and 1.02, respectively.
Conclusion: Post-treatment CT imaging of radiopaque microspheres in ⁹⁰Y radioembolization provides the means to perform precision dosimetry and extract more accurate dose metrics that can be aid in refining our understanding of the dose-response relationship in ⁹⁰Y radioembolization, which could ultimately improve future patient outcomes.
Funding Support, Disclosures, and Conflict of Interest: RA is a shareholder, cofounder, and CMO of ABK Biomedical. AS, ECH, ACG, SCK, and DL have provided consulting services to ABK Biomedical. JNB and DL have received research support from ABK Biomedical.