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

描述（申请人提供）：磁共振成像（MRI）提供精细的软组织对比。正电子发射断层扫描提供精细的分子和生化信息，但往往缺乏解剖对比。后一事实导致了PET-CT（计算机断层扫描）联合扫描仪的发展，以便使用x射线CT提供PET所缺乏的解剖对比。结合MRI和PET扫描仪的可能性已经被实验证明，然而高磁场在最终仪器的工程设计中创造了许多挑战。该提案旨在获得资金，以购买由西门子- cps仪器公司制造的PET-MRI扫描仪原型。虽然是第一代仪器，但该仪器将允许使用1.5T扫描仪收集高质量的软组织解剖对比度，同时从同心PET检测器获取空间分辨率为3毫米的高质量PET数据。该提案代表了美国国立卫生研究院资助项目的集合，所有这些项目都将极大地受益于MRI可以为许多不同疾病过程的最先进的PET研究提供的附加解剖和代谢信息。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。这一建议反映了联合研究人员的信念，即PET扫描的未来很可能在这种设备中找到，并且在基础科学和临床环境中进行即时测试，将为我们提供一个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.