Superimposition of computed tomography and single photon emission tomography immunoscintigraphic images in the pelvis: validation in patients with colorectal or ovarian carcinoma recurrence

A method of superimposing computed tomography (CT) and immunoscintigraphic (IS) single photon emission tomography (SPET) slices is presented and has been applied to 10 patients with suspected cancer recurrence. IS was performed with carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-specific indium-111 monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) in 5 patients with colorectal cancer, and with OC125 111In-MoAbs in 5 patients with ovarian cancer. All patients had an abnormal CT image result in the pelvis, which was interpreted 5 times as recurrence, once as doubtful and four times as scar fibrosis. Recurrence was subsequently proven in all patients. Bone scintigraphy (BS) SPET was recorded at the same time as IS. No special technique was used during BS, IS or CT acquisition. CT images were fed into a computer using a CCD camera. Using the internal anatomical landmarks provided by the pelvic bone structures seen on CT and BS, an operator had to select corresponding fiducial points, which were used by the software to register the images. The final results were CT-BS and CT-IS superimposed images. CT-BS images were used for quality control. In all patients, the inspection of CT-BS and CT-IS showed that the registration process is accurate and assists in the co-interpretation of CT and IS images.