Abstract:
Twenty-nine 18F-NaF PET/CT co-registered scans of patients with self-reported chronic lumbar pain were provided by Mercy Hospital (Auckland, New Zealand). A template finite element model was constructed from the Visible Human Male and customised to each patient using ‗host-mesh‘ fitting, a free-form deformation technique. Using patient body weights, linear elastic simulations were run to compute Von Mises stress at element centroids and 18F uptake was interpolated from the PET scans to these centroids. On a per-node basis, no correlation was found between 18F and VMS magnitude. However, co-occurrence between ‗peak‘ 18F and VMS higher than that expected for an independent-distribution case was found when ‗peaks‘ were defined using the 50th–100th percentile interval. The findings support the proposition that peak bone stresses play a role in inducing 18F uptake on a subject-specific basis. This work may assist clinicians with identifying mechanical causes of high 18F uptake and inform treatment strategies.
