Transferring Whole Blood Time Activity Curve to Plasma in Rodents Using Blood-Cell-Two-Compartment Model

The term input function usually refers to the tracer plasma time activity curve (pTAC), which is necessary for quantitative positron emission tomography (PET) studies. The purpose of this study was to acquire the pTAC from the independent component analysis (ICA) estimated whole blood time activity curve (wTAC) using our proposed method: FDG blood-cell-two-compartment model (BCM). We also compared published models, which are linear haematocrit (HCT) correction, nonlinear HCT correction, and two-exponential correction. According to the results, the normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) and error of area under curve (EAUC) of BCM estimated pTAC were the smallest. Compartmental and graphic analyses were used to estimate metabolic rate of FDG (MR FDG ). The percentage error of MR FDG (PE MRFDG ) estimated from BCM corrected pTAC was also the smallest. The BCM is a better choice to transfer wTAC to pTAC for quantification.