PET/MRI: Technical Challenges and Recent Advances

• Published in: Nuclear medicine and molecular imaging Vol. 50; no. 1; pp. 3 - 12
• Main Authors: Jung, Jin Ho, Choi, Yong, Im, Ki Chun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.03.2016; 대한핵의학회
• Subjects: Cardiology; Imaging; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Nuclear Medicine; Oncology; Orthopedics; Radiology; Review; 방사선과학; Anatomical and functional information; MRI; PET; PET/MRI hybrid imaging system
• ISSN: 1869-3474; 1869-3482
• DOI: 10.1007/s13139-016-0393-1

Integrated positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can provide complementary functional and anatomical information about a specific organ or body system at the molecular level, has become a powerful imaging modality to understand the molecular biology details, disease mechanisms, and pharmacokinetics in animals and humans. Although the first experiment on the PET/MRI was performed in the early 1990s, its clinical application was accomplished in recent years because there were various technical challenges in integrating PET and MRI in a single system with minimum mutual interference between PET and MRI. This paper presents the technical challenges and recent advances in combining PET and MRI along with several approaches for improving PET image quality of the PET/MRI hybrid imaging system.