A Portable PET Insert System for Simultaneous TOF-PET and MR Brain Imaging

项目摘要 磁共振成像(MRI)和正电子发射断层扫描等医学成像技术 (PET)已被广泛用于研究精神疾病和神经疾病的潜在机制 脑瘤、阿尔茨海默病、癫痫和抑郁症等疾病。然而，PET和MRI 扫描几乎总是作为单独的检查在不同的机器上订购，通常会导致数周的延迟 在获取有关病人疾病的关键信息方面。最近兴起的混合PET/MRI使 同时获取有关患者的解剖、功能和分子信息。然而，它的 可获得性受到商业永久集成PET+MRI系统(+AN)高昂成本(500万美元)的限制 额外150-200万美元的房间翻新费用)。如今，美国仅安装了大约40套PET/MRI系统 相比之下，安装了近13,000套核磁共振系统。此外，商业整体的设计和几何形状- 身体PET/CT和PET/MRI系统没有针对脑成像进行优化，导致灵敏度和空间较差 可用于神经学研究的解决方案。为了解决这些需求，PETcol正在提议开发一种 便携式PET插入物，可以安装到任何现有的MRI系统中(或从其中拆卸)，以实现 与安装集成的PET+MR系统相比，同时安装PET/MRI的成本只有一小部分。此外 为了显著降低成本，建议的PET插入物还提供3倍更高的光子灵敏度和4倍 与最先进的全身一体化PET+MR系统相比，体积空间分辨率更高。关键是 促进这种可拆卸插入物概念的是我们拥有的新颖的“射频(RF)穿透”技术 在斯坦福大学开发的。在这个第一阶段的项目中，我们将创建一个紧凑且可扩展的PET探测器设计 模块准备扩大到一个完整的射频穿透PET插入系统的第二阶段提案。我们还将 通过比较PET和MRI的性能结果，验证PET探测器模块的MRI兼容性 通过MRI系统外部的PET探测器模块获取的数据，到在以下条件下从3个MRI系统内部获取的数据 同时进行正电子发射计算机断层扫描和核磁共振检查。该项目的成功将降低商业化的风险 首款利用现有核磁共振系统的便携式飞行时间(TOF)射频穿透PET扫描仪插件 实现同时的TOF-PET/MR脑成像，而不需要修改MR系统硬件。 所提出的便携式PET插入物可以极大地传播用于脑成像的PET/MRI，并促进研究 以及各种神经疾病的临床特征。

Project Summary Medical imaging technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) have been widely used in studying the underlying mechanisms of mental illnesses and neurological disorders such as brain tumors, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, and depression, etc. However, PET and MRI scans are almost always ordered as separate studies on separate machines, often resulting in weeks of delay in acquiring critical information about a patient’s disease. The recent rise of hybrid PET/MRI has enabled the simultaneous acquisition of anatomical, functional, and molecular information about the patient. However, its accessibility is limited by the high cost ($5M) of the commercial permanently integrated PET+MRI systems (+ an additional $1.5-2M room renovation cost). Today, only about 40 PET/MRI systems are installed in the US compared to almost 13,000 installed MRI systems. Moreover, the design and geometry of the commercial whole- body PET/CT and PET/MRI systems are not optimized for brain imaging, resulting in poorer sensitivity and spatial resolution achievable for neurological studies. To address these needs, PETcoil is proposing to develop a portable PET insert that can be installed into (and removed from) any existing MRI systems to achieve simultaneous PET/MRI for a fraction of the cost compared to installing an integrated PET+MR system. In addition to significantly lower cost, the proposed PET insert also provides 3 times higher photon sensitivity and 4 times finer volumetric spatial resolution compared to state-of-the-art whole-body integrated PET+MR systems. Key to facilitating this removable insert concept is the novel “radiofrequency (RF)-penetrable” technology we have developed at Stanford. In this Phase I project, we will create a compact and scalable design of the PET detector module ready for scaling up to a full RF-penetrable PET insert system for a Phase II proposal. We will also validate the MRI compatibility of the PET detector modules by comparing the PET and MRI performance results acquired with the PET detector modules outside the MRI system to those acquired inside 3 MRI systems under simultaneous PET and MRI operation. The success of this project will mitigate risks toward the commercialization of the first portable time-of-flight (TOF) RF-penetrable PET scanner insert that leverages existing MRI systems to achieve simultaneous TOF-PET/MR brain imaging, without requiring modifications to the MR system hardware. The proposed portable PET insert can greatly disseminate PET/MRI for brain imaging and facilitate the research and clinical characterization of a wide variety of neurological disorders.