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PET/MRI system design

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Abstract

Introduction

The combination of clinical MRI and PET systems has received increased attention in recent years. In contrast to currently used PET/CT systems, PET/MRI offers not only improved soft-tissue contrast and reduced levels of ionizing radiation, but also a wealth of MRI-specific information such as functional, spectroscopic and diffusion tensor imaging. Combining PET and MRI, however, has proven to be very challenging, due to the detrimental cross-talk effects between the two systems.

Objective

Significant progress has been made in the recent years to overcome these difficulties, with several groups reporting PET/MRI prototypes for animal imaging and a clinical insert for neurological applications being demonstrated at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine.

Discussion

In this paper we review different architectures for clinical PET/MRI systems, and their possibilities, limitations and technological obstacles.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by a research grant from Siemens AG.

Conflict of interest

None.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nuklearmedizinische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, Ismaniger Str. 22, 81675, Munich, Germany

    Gaspar Delso & Sibylle Ziegler

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  1. Gaspar Delso
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  2. Sibylle Ziegler
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Correspondence to Gaspar Delso.

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Delso, G., Ziegler, S. PET/MRI system design. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 36 (Suppl 1), 86–92 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-008-1008-6

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