1. FDG-PET/CT Technical Committee
Quality Control Subcommittee

2. Goals
Bridge the gap between PET/CT scanner acceptance/qualification/certification and routine (daily) quality control
Summarize methods and parameters for evaluating daily PET and CT QC on each vendor’s PET/CT scanner
Long term goal: Establish common standards for recording and distributing QC parameters for individual patient scans (e.g. extended DICOM tags)

3. Process
Identify the daily quality control tests that are performed on each vendor’s PET/CT scanners
Specify the range of acceptable parameters for each test as recommended by the vendor
Describe the methods for obtaining QC parameters and the output format for each vendor
Ideally, develop standard for daily QC output that could be exported with individual patient scan, e.g. extended DICOM tags or standard file format (CSV, XML)

4. CT Quality Control Siemens – automated test (pass/fail)
Check HU value of water.
Check pixel noise
Check tube voltages
GE – manual test with acceptable range
Check mean CT value of water (range: 0 ±3 HU) in 3 ROIs of uniform section.
Check variance of water (range: 3 ±0.4) in 3 ROIs of uniform section

5. Siemens PET Quality Control
Ge-68 cylinder compared to normalization standard
Visually inspect sinograms and fansums.
If a sinogram shows a dark or bright streak or a “fansum” block is not uniform, notify physicist
If Chi-square > 2.5, notify physicist. (Original limit, adopted as DFCI threshold.)
If Chi-square > 10, call Service. Notify physicist

6. GE PET Quality Control
Ge-68 pin source compare daily tests to baseline with color coded results (green/yellow/red)
Coincidence mean (sensitivity test: Average of coincidences for all crystals)
Coincidence variance
Singles mean (Average of singles for all crystals).
Singles variance
Mean deadtime (Average deadtime of all blocks).
Timing mean (Average timing adjustment of all crystals)
Energy shift (Average difference in energy peak location)

7. QC Output formats Mostly based on visual display
Siemens has some files available in html format on local folder
GE results can be printed as postscript

8. Resources Needed
Information about Philips Daily QC from end users and vendor
Additional clarifications from GE and Siemens
Feedback from RSNA QIBA members
Potential interactions with DICOM working group to discuss inclusion of QC results