Quantification methods of PET biomarkers in Alzheimers disease

  1. Francisco Javier López González
Supervised by:
  1. Pablo Aguiar Fernández Director
  2. Jesús Silva Rodríguez Director

Defence university: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

Fecha de defensa: 22 March 2023

Committee:
  1. Michel Grothe Chair
  2. Pascual Sánchez-Juan Secretary
  3. Valle Camacho Martí Committee member
Department:
  1. Department of Psychiatry, Radiology, Public Health, Nursing and Medicine

Type: Thesis

Teseo: 799733 DIALNET lock_openMINERVA editor

Abstract

PET studies with 18F-Fluorodesoxiglucosa, 18F-Florbetapir and 18FFlortaucipir radiotracers have become as the reference techniques to generate the neurodegeneration biomarkers, amyloidosis and taupathy needed in a reliable diagnosis and the staging of the Alzheimers disease. Nevertheless, in order to measure these biomarkers in a precise and reproducible manner, it is necessary to develop PET image quantification methods. The objective of this thesis is to implement and to validate different methods that improve the PET image quantification by using Monte Carlo simulation techniques. The main problems with the quantification methods of PET biomarkers, such as the election of a suitable reference region, intensity normalization and partial volume effects are addressed.