Development and Evaluation of a Breast PET/MRI Insert Prototype for a Clinical Whole-Body PET/MRI Scanner

用于临床全身 PET/MRI 扫描仪的乳腺 PET/MRI 插入原型的开发和评估

• 批准号: 508064995
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Bernd Pichler
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung Hochfeld-Magnetresonanz
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/508064995?language=en
• 关键词: Development; Evaluation; Breast; PET; MRI

We aim to use the combination of the complementary detection sensitivities of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to improve the diagnostic accuracy in breast cancer. The current whole-body clinical PET/MRI scanners were designed for a wide range of applications, not solely for breast imaging. This causes limitations in spatial resolution and detection sensitivity for imaging of the breast. Our goal is to overcome these limitations by the development of a breast-specific PET insert for a state-of-the-art clinical whole-body PET/MRI scanner. The concept proposed by our group further utilizes coincidences between the breast PET insert and the whole-body PET/MRI scanner. This enables a high precision for imaging of the axillary lymph nodes and metastasis outside of the breast which are essential for the classification of breast cancer and subsequent treatment guidance. For the development of the breast PET insert, we will utilize the expertise of our consortium in PET detector development, MR coil development, system design and integration, and image reconstruction. We developed prototype PET detectors that prove to have fulfilled the requirements of the breast PET insert with regards to a high spatial resolution and performance characteristics such as energy and time resolution. We further proved the MRI compatibility of these detectors, i.e. no mutual distortions while operated inside the 3T Biograph mMR (Siemens Healthineers, Erlangen, Germany). Further steps are a more compact design for integration into the MR coil and depth of interaction capability. Further, we have the expertise to develop an MR coil dedicated for breast imaging, which is capable to handle the close-by PET detectors of the breast PET insert and their corresponding shielding. We elaborated and compared initial designs of the breast PET insert based on Monte Carlo simulations. We will further extend the simulations to finalize the insert design and develop an image reconstruction that offers a combination of the insert and whole-body scanner. Therefore, our goal is to develop a unique fully integrated PET/RF-coil setup for high resolution, high sensitivity imaging of the female breast which slip-fits into a commercial clinical 3T PET/MR. This will allow PET coincidences between the two systems as well as total body and dedicated breast MRI. The mechanical construction and the software and hardware implementation will further allow an upgrade to a full four-ring system. However, this will be the next step and is not intended in this proposal to maintain the balance between risk and gain.

我们的目的是使用互补的检测灵敏度的正电子发射断层扫描（PET）和磁共振成像（MRI）的组合，以提高诊断准确性在乳腺癌。目前的全身临床PET/MRI扫描仪设计用于广泛的应用，而不仅仅是乳房成像。这导致对乳房成像的空间分辨率和检测灵敏度的限制。我们的目标是通过开发用于最先进的临床全身PET/MRI扫描仪的乳房特异性PET插入物来克服这些限制。我们小组提出的概念进一步利用了乳房PET插入物和全身PET/MRI扫描仪之间的一致性。这使得能够对乳腺癌分类和后续治疗指导所必需的腋窝淋巴结和乳房外转移进行高精度成像。对于乳房PET插入物的开发，我们将利用我们联盟在PET探测器开发、MR线圈开发、系统设计和集成以及图像重建方面的专业知识。我们开发了原型PET探测器，证明其满足乳房PET插入物在高空间分辨率和性能特征（如能量和时间分辨率）方面的要求。我们进一步证明了这些探测器的MRI兼容性，即在3 T Biograph mMR（Siemens Healthineers，埃尔兰根，德国）内运行时没有相互失真。进一步的步骤是用于集成到MR线圈中的更紧凑的设计和相互作用能力的深度。此外，我们拥有专门开发乳腺成像专用MR线圈的专业知识，该线圈能够处理乳腺PET插入物的近距离PET探测器及其相应屏蔽。我们基于Monte Carlo模拟详细阐述并比较了乳房PET插入物的初始设计。我们将进一步扩展模拟，以最终确定衬垫设计并开发图像重建，提供衬垫和全身扫描仪的组合。因此，我们的目标是开发一种独特的完全集成的PET/RF线圈设置，用于女性乳房的高分辨率、高灵敏度成像，该设置可滑动安装到商业临床3 T PET/MR中。这将允许两个系统以及全身和专用乳房MRI之间的PET重合。机械结构以及软件和硬件的实施将进一步允许升级到完整的四环系统。然而，这将是下一步，本提案无意保持风险与收益之间的平衡。