Current Brazilian scenario on quality control of small animal PET scanner

Abstract

The aim of this work was updating the Brazilian scenario about quality assurance program of preclinical PET (positron emission tomography) imaging systems. An electronic survey (in Portuguese) was prepared and applied to all Brazilian preclinical molecular imaging services that participated in the first Brazilian microPET/SPECT/CT users meeting held at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Its main goal was to know the current scenario about preclinical PET scanners and activity meters performances available at the Brazilian research centers. It is important to say that this work was based on scenario previously done and published by Gontijo et al. (2020) due to the change in the current scenario. The answers were compiled, and descriptive statistic was applied. There are still six preclinical molecular imaging centers in Brazil using seven PET systems for small animals. Among them, five are in the southeastern region and one in the south region. Triumph II platform with LabPET software is still predominant (used in 4 services); the Albira manufacturer are used in 2 different centers and Molecubes is used in a center that have 2 systems available. All services have knowledge of the NEMA NU 4/2008 publication specific to small animal PET systems. However, there is no quality assurance program for PET scanner implemented in most of the centers but is unanimous their importance in preclinical molecular imaging research field.