Current Brazilian scenario on quality control of small animal PET scanners

Resumo

The aim of this work was to update the Brazilian scenario regarding the quality assurance program of preclinical PET imaging systems. An electronic survey (in Portuguese) was prepared and applied to all Brazilian preclinical molecular imaging services participating 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 of preclinical PET scanners and dose calibrator performances available at Brazilian research centers. It is important to note that this work was based on a scenario previously proposed and published by Gontijo et al. (2020) due to changes in the current scenario. The answers were compiled, and the descriptive statistic was applied. There are currently 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 is used in 2 different centers and Molecubes is used in a center with 2 systems available. All services know 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, although its importance is unanimous in the preclinical molecular imaging research field.