Tracer Kinetic Modeling with R for Batch Processing of Dynamic PET Studies

Dynamic PET imaging can provide information regarding metabolism, blood flow or other physiological properties of biological tissues beyond what static imaging may offer. A common technique for analyzing these images is compartmental modeling, whose mathematical resolution generally involves solving a set of differential equations using a non-linear least squares algorithm. This paper presents a guide that shows how the R programming language can be used to perform this analysis. To test the suitability of the proposed implementations, a comparison with the PMOD software package has been carried out. We show that the R programming language provides easy to use libraries that can be combined to implement solutions for different compartmental models whose results match those obtained using a commercial tool.