18F PET/CT 
Accreditation

EARL has now initiated 18F standards 2 accreditation, while keeping effective 18F standards 1 for a transition period. The limits of acceptability for the recovery coefficients can be reviewed in the section Accreditation Specifications.

Imperative points to consider include but are not limited to:

  • The images conforming to EARL 18F standards 1 cannot be pooled with those conforming to EARL 18F standards 2
  • The visual interpretation of the PET images may differ between these two standards as stated in Updating PET/CT performance standards and PET/CT interpretation criteria should go hand in hand by Boellaard et al. EJNMMI Research 2019
  • 18F standards 2 allows sites to benefit from state-of-the-art PET/CT technology while still ensuring harmonised PET/CT system performance and SUV comparability in a multicenter study with a new 18F standards 2.

18F PET/MR 
Accreditation

In Q1 2022 we are starting 18F PET/MR accreditation program. The accreditation is based on a pilot study published by Boellaard et. al.1 This new program will have 18F standards 1 and 2 same as the current PET/CT accreditation, and the same Accreditation Specifications will apply.  This accreditation only harmonizes the PET component, and not the attenuation correction, nor it checks/validates the attenuation correction method used in clinical studies.

1 Quality control for quantitative multicenter whole-body PET/MR studies: A NEMA image quality phantom study with three current PET/MR systems. Boellaard R, Rausch I, Beyer T, Delso G, Yaqub M, Quick HH, Sattler B. Med Phys. 2015 Oct;42(10):5961-9. doi: 10.1118/1.4930962. PMID: 26429271