Combined MRI/PET Imager for Simultaneous Acquisition of PET/MRI Data

描述（由申请人提供）：磁共振成像（MRI）可提供精致的软组织对比度。正电子发射断层扫描提供了精细的分子和生化信息，但往往缺乏解剖对比。后一种事实导致了组合PET-CT（计算机断层摄影）扫描仪的发展，以便使用X射线CT来提供PET中缺乏的解剖对比度。结合MRI和PET扫描仪的可能性已被实验证明，但是高磁场在最终仪器的工程设计中产生了许多挑战。该提案旨在获得资金，以购买将由Siemens-CPS Instrumentation制造的原型PET-MRI扫描仪。虽然是第一代仪器，但该仪器将允许使用1.5T扫描仪收集高质量软组织解剖对比度，同时从同心PET探测器采集空间分辨率约为3 mm的高质量PET数据。该提案代表了NIH资助的项目的集合，所有这些项目都将大大受益于MRI可以在许多不同疾病过程中为最先进的PET研究提供的额外解剖和代谢信息。这种扫描仪将使我们有机会详细了解这种系统的局限性和优点，以帮助定制下一代扫描仪。这一提议反映了相关研究人员的信念，即PET扫描的未来很可能在此类设备中找到，并且在基础科学和临床环境中的即时测试将为我们提供无与伦比的机会来提高PET扫描的定量准确性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides exquisite soft tissue contrast. Positron emission tomography provides exquisite molecular and biochemical information, but often lacks anatomic contrast. This latter fact has led to the development of combined PET-CT (computed tomography) scanners in order to use x-ray CT to provide the anatomic contrast lacking in the PET. The possibility of combining an MRI and PET scanner has been experimentally documented, however the high magnetic field creates many challenges in engineering the final instrument. This proposal seeks to obtain funding to purchase a prototype PET-MRI scanner to be built by Siemens-CPS Instrumentation. Although a first generation instrument, this instrument would allow for collection of high quality soft-tissue anatomic contrast using a 1.5T scanner while simultaneously acquiring high quality PET data with a spatial resolution on the order of 3 mm from a concentric PET detector. This proposal represents a collection of NIH-funded projects, all of which would greatly benefit from the added anatomic and metabolic information that the MRI can provide to state-of-the-art PET studies in a number of different disease processes. This scanner would afford us the opportunity of working out in detail the limitations and advantages of such a system to help tailor future generation scanners. This proposal reflects the belief of the allied investigators that the future of PET scanning may well be found in such devices, and that immediate testing, in both basic science and clinical settings, will afford us an unparalleled opportunity to improve the quantitative accuracy of PET scanning.