PET-MR Motion Correction Based Purely on Routine Clinical Scans

在全球范围内，癌症是影响人类的最危险和最普遍的疾病之一。每年约有1400万人被诊断患有癌症，800万人死于这种疾病。诊断癌症和监测/计划其治疗的主要手段之一是通过使用PET成像。然而，诸如由呼吸引起的患者运动的问题严重阻碍了当前PET扫描仪的有效性。传统上，PET成像已经与CT扫描相结合，因为其在重建PET图像中的有用性。然而，CT扫描向患者递送显著的辐射剂量，并且太慢而不能有效地估计呼吸运动。最近，新一代PET扫描仪已经被引入市场，其将PET与MR成像联合收割机结合。MR为估计呼吸运动提供了非常有前途的信息源。然而，目前缺乏充分利用MR扫描所提供的丰富信息的技术，本提案的目的是设计用于从MR和PET成像数据估计呼吸运动的技术，以用于对PET和MR数据进行运动校正。如果成功，这项研究的结果将提高PET-MR成像的质量。这将使癌症能够更早地被诊断出来，从而可能获得更有效的治疗。此外，它将有可能更可靠地监测癌症治疗的进展，甚至使治疗更具针对性和有效性。我们提出的方法的一个关键好处是，它不需要改变临床工作流程。通常，MR和PET扫描用于临床目的：PET图像用于诊断/评估肿瘤，而MR图像提供解剖背景。因此，这两种方式是互补的，两者都是临床上有用的。使用MR数据进行运动校正PET的所有先前方法都需要广泛使用MR扫描器资源，并且其有效性有限。实际上，MR扫描仪将被用作昂贵的运动校正设备。因此，这些技术目前都没有广泛的临床应用。我们提出的方法只使用常规采集用于临床目的的图像，因此更有可能用于临床。

Globally, cancer is one of the most dangerous and prevalent diseases affecting mankind. Each year, around 14 million people are diagnosed with cancer and 8 million people die from the disease. One of the primary means of diagnosing cancer and monitoring/planning its treatment is through the use of PET imaging. However, the problem of patient motion, such as that caused by breathing, seriously hinders the effectiveness of current PET scanners.One way of estimating breathing motion, so that its effects can be corrected for, is through the use of a second imaging modality. Traditionally, PET imaging has been combined with CT scanning because of its usefulness in reconstructing PET images. However, CT scanning delivers a significant radiation dose to the patient and is too slow to be able to estimate breathing motion effectively. Recently, a new generation of PET scanners have been introduced to the market, which combine PET with MR imaging. MR offers a highly promising source of information for estimating breathing motion. However, techniques to fully exploit the rich information provided by MR scanning are currently lacking.The aim of this proposal is to devise techniques for estimating breathing motion from MR and PET imaging data, for the purpose of motion correcting both the PET and MR data. If successful, the outcome of this research will be to improve the quality of PET-MR imaging. This will enable cancer to be diagnosed earlier, allowing potentially more effective treatment. In addition, it will be possible to monitor the progress of cancer treatment more reliably, and even make the treatment more targeted and effective.A key benefit of our proposed approach is that it will not require clinical workflows to be altered. Normally, MR and PET scans are performed for clinical purposes: the PET images are used to diagnose/assess tumours, whereas MR images provide the anatomical context. The two modalities are therefore complementary, and both are clinically useful. All previous approaches to motion correcting PET using MR data have, as well as being limited in their effectiveness, required extensive use of MR scanner resources. Effectively, the MR scanner would be used as an expensive motion correction device. As a result none of these techniques are currently in widespread clinical use. Our proposed approach makes use only of images that are routinely acquired for clinical purposes, and would therefore be much more likely to be used clinically.