Clinical Image Testing: PET (Revised 8-23-2024)

Katie Albus

Modified on: Fri, 23 Aug, 2024 at 10:50 AM

Revision History

The facility must submit two exams per module, one of which must be abnormal. Each exam must be from a different patient. Please see the article on Modalities with Low Volume or Emergency Use as needed.

A Site Scanning Data Form is attached below, in addition to Test Image Data Forms for the Oncology, Brain, and Cardiac Modules.

Example clinical images can be reviewed using the Nuclear Medicine/PET Clinical Image Atlas attached to our Testing Overview: NM/PET article.

Required PET Exams for Module 1, Module 2 and Module 3
Module 1: Oncology	Module 2: Brain	Module 3: Cardiac
Sites are required to submit two separate oncology studies for each unit to be accredited, one of which must be abnormal. The second exam can be either normal or abnormal. Whole Body exams are considered to be eyes to thighs or head to toe. The DICOM axial reconstructed data sets, attenuation corrected (AC) and non-attenuation corrected (NAC) MUST be included and display in transverse, sagittal, and coronal planes using the NM+Fused 3 x 2 NilRead viewing tools (See below)* The blood glucose level should be documented for FDG PET studies. Blood glucose levels are not required for other PET tracers. Please do not upload CT images. They are not required at this time. Studies will fail if images are not properly labeled as to laterality and orientation.	Sites are required to submit two separate brain exams for each unit to be accredited, one of which must be abnormal. The second exam can be either normal or abnormal. Both exams should be attenuation corrected (AC) image files. The DICOM axial reconstructed data set MUST be included and display in transverse, sagittal, and coronal planes using the NM+Fused 3 x 2 NilRead viewing tools (see below). * Studies will fail if images are not properly labeled as to laterality and orientation.	Sites are required to submit two separate cardiac exams (AHA/ACC standard views) for each unit to be accredited, one of which must be abnormal. The second exam can be either normal or abnormal. The site may select myocardial perfusion and/or myocardial viability exams. Please submit the study in the same format the interpreting physician would use for interpretation of the exam (i.e., slices). SA slices must include apex to base, VLA and HLA slices must show "wall to wall". Two pages of slices may be necessary to show the entire LV apex to base and wall to wall. For stress and rest perfusion submissions, gated images must include the time activity or volume curve depicting the ejection fraction. In addition, the images depicting the ROIs (end-systole and end-diastole) used to generate the EF must be submitted. If ED/ES ROIs are not available for display on the processing system, 3D surface rendered images (with or without cage overlay) may be substituted. Images MUST show ED and ES and be clearly labeled as such. For viability submissions, FDG slices are required along with rest perfusion images (this can be SPECT or PET perfusion images). Gated images are not required for viability submissions. Images must be properly labeled.

After uploading the DICOM axial slices, you can click on the drop down to the right of View. Click on the NM + Fused 3 x 2

It will open the file in a 3-view display. This only works with DICOM files.

Revision History for this Article
Date	Section	Description of Revision(s)
12-12-19	All	Article created; FAQs incorporated; No criteria changes
3-20-2020	Module 1 Oncology	Added additional instruction regarding whole-body coronal images
6-2-2020	Module 3: Cardiac	Added submission of study requirements
9-23-2020		Added link to NM/PET Clinical Atlas
8-29-2022		Edited 2nd bullet under Module 1 Oncology and Module 2 Brain on display of DICOM reconstructed data set
11-9-2022		Clarified blood glucose documentation oncology module
12-5-2022	All	Attached Brain, Oncology, and Cardiac data forms
6-29-2023	Module 1: Oncology	Updated Module 1: Oncology requirements (added 2nd bullet)
9-1-2023	Module 3: Cardiac	Updated Module 3: Cardiac requirements (added 3rd bullet)
12-15-2023	Module 3: Cardiac	Updated Module 3: Cardiac requirements (moved 2nd bullet, edited 4th bullet and added 5th bullet)
12-15-2023		Updated PET Brain TID, PET Cardiac TID and PET Oncology TID attachments
4-30-2024	Module 1: Oncology	Updated exam requirement (3rd bullet)
	Module 2: Brain	Updated exam requirement (1st bullet)
8-23-2024		Added link to the Modalities with Low Volume or Emergency Use article

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