First clinical experience of 106 cm, long axial field-of-view (LAFOV) PET/CT: an elegant balance between standard axial (23 cm) and total-body (194 cm) systems.

With continued development and optimization of the PET/CT scanner, as well as cost reduction, we believe LAFOV PET/CT scanners will become widely available in the future, just like PET/CT scanners have replaced PET scanners more than a decade ago [[41]]. Although the CT dose was not specifically stated, the effective radiation dose associated with this type of low-dose CT scan is approximately 2-3 mSv, which is significantly lower than a typical diagnostic body CT exam and the CT component of a typical modern PET/CT exam (~ 5-10 mSv) [[21]-[23]]. With the constant advancements of CT tube and detector technologies [[24]], as well as artificial intelligence (AI)-based CT dose reduction technologies (e.g., TrueFidelity Deep Learning Image Reconstruction from GE Healthcare [[25]] and Advanced Intelligent Clear-IQ Engine from Canon Medical Systems USA Inc. [[27]-[29]]), it is very likely that the CT component of LAFOV PET/CT exam will be further reduced to the sub-mSv level in the near future, which means the entire whole-body PET/CT exam with a low dose of injected PET tracer can be achieved below 2 mSv. 10.1007/s00259-021-05357-5. 33866409 20 Tan H, Sui X, Yin H, Yu H, Gu Y, Chen S. Total-body PET/CT using half-dose FDG and compared with conventional PET/CT using full-dose FDG in lung cancer. [Extracted from the article]