Accreditation specifications
During the EANM Conference 2018 in Düsseldorf EARL announced the update of the EARL performance specifications. The current standard allows sites to benefit from state-of-the-art PET/CT technology and is based on a recent publication by EARL entitled “Feasibility of state-of-the-art PET/CT systems performance harmonisation”, by Kaalep et al. EJNMMI 2018. The impact of the new 18F standard 2 on the quantification of clinical studies has been described in “Quantitative implications of the updated EARL 2019 PET–CT performance standards”, by Kaalep et al. EJNMMI Physics 2019. EARL has now initiated this 18F standard 2 accreditation, while keeping effective 18F standard 1 for a transition period.
Imperative points to consider include but are not limited to:
In addition, EARL added 89Zr PET/CT accreditation and initialized it in collaboration with the European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine (EATRIS). It aims at harmonizing PET/CT calibration and quantitative image quality using 89Zr labeled pharmaceuticals. The 89Zr PET/CT accreditation is based on and derived from the procedures performed for the 18F-FDG PET/CT accreditation which is a prerequisite for 89Zr PET/CT accreditation[1].
The presentation on this EARL update, given by Prof. Dr. R. Boellaard, can be found here .
The update specifications are effective as of quarter 3 of 2020.
EARL FDG PET/CT accreditation specifications for SUV recovery coefficients
EARL is dedicated towards improving and supporting the quality of nuclear medicine procedures. The EARL accreditation is based on quality control (QC) experiments that were described and published in the EANM guidelines in 2010. Meanwhile the field has moved forward and new developments, technologies and insights have become available.
As of July2020, the following specifications are valid for EARL 18F standard 1 and 2:
NEMA IEC phantom spheres |
18F standard 1 RCs |
18F standard 2 RCs |
|||
Diameter (mm) |
Volume (mL) |
max |
mean |
max |
mean |
37 |
26.52 |
0.95 – 1.16 |
0.76 – 0.89 |
1.05 – 1.29 |
0.85 – 1.00 |
28 |
11.49 |
0.91 – 1.13 |
0.72 – 0.85 |
1.01 – 1.26 |
0.82 – 0.97 |
22 |
5.57 |
0.83 – 1.09 |
0.63 – 0.78 |
1.01 – 1.32 |
0.80 – 0.99 |
17 |
2.57 |
0.73 – 1.01 |
0.57 – 0.73 |
1.00 – 1.38 |
0.76 – 0.97 |
13 |
1.15 |
0.59 – 0.85 |
0.44 – 0.60 |
0.85 – 1.22 |
0.63 – 0.86 |
10 |
0.52 |
0.34 – 0.57 |
0.27 – 0.43 |
0.52 – 0.88 |
0.39 – 0.61 |
[1] Feasibility of PET/CT system performance harmonization for quantitative multicentre 89Zr studies. Andres Kaalep, Marc Huisman, Terez Sera, Danielle Vugts, Ronald Boellaard, on behalf of EARL, EATRIS, the TRISTAN Consortium (#IB4SD-116106). EJNMMI Phys. 2018 Dec; 5: 26. Published online 2018 Nov 21. doi: 10.1186/s40658-018-0226-7 PMCID:PMC6246752