Tracer Retention Fraction

The Retention Fraction is the fraction of the total tracer delivered to an organ that is extracted into and retained by the tissue. It is the residual after clearances of the vascular component and the portion of the tracer that rapidly back diffuses from tissue to blood. Usually this fraction of tracer is sequestered in more slowly turning over metabolic or membrane binding processes. [1]

Operational Equation

Given a tissue TAC C_T(t) and the input curve C_P(t) this auxiliary model allows calculating the retention fraction R by [2]:

The denominator with the input curve integrated from the time of injection represents the available tracer, the numerator with the integral of the late tissue uptake the actually extracted tracer.

Implementation

The Tracer Retention auxiliary model has two input parameters Start and End for the specification of t_s and t_e in the integration formula above, respectively. The curve display shows the input curve interpolated at the frame mid-times.

References

1. see Glossary in Phelps ME: PET : molecular imaging and its biological applications. New York: Springer; 2004.

2. Hutchins GD, Chen T, Carlson KA, Fain RL, Winkle W, Vavrek T, Mock BH, Zipes DP: PET imaging of oxidative metabolism abnormalities in sympathetically denervated canine myocardium. J Nucl Med 1999, 40(5):846-853.