MR/PET or PET/MRI: does it matter?
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MR/PET or PET/MRI: does it matter? Thomas Beyer • Ewald Moser
Received: 22 November 2012 / Revised: 20 December 2012 / Accepted: 21 December 2012 / Published online: 6 February 2013 Ó ESMRMB 2013
Abstract After the very successful clinical introduction of combined PET/CT imaging a decade ago, a hardware combination of PET and MR is following suit. Today, three different approaches towards integrated PET/MR have been proposed: (1) a triple-modality system with a 3T MRI and a time-of-flight PET/CT installed in adjacent rooms, (2) a tandem system with a 3T MRI and a time-of-flight PET/CT in a co-planar installation with a joint patient handling system, and (3) a fully-integrated system with a whole-body PET system mounted inside a 3T MRI system. This special issue of MAGMA brings together contributions from key experts in the field of PET/MR, PET/CT and CT. The various papers share the author’s perspectives on the state-of-the-art PET/MR imaging with any of the three approaches mentioned above. In addition to several reviews discussing advantages and challenges of combining PET and MRI for clinical diagnostics, first clinical data are also presented. We expect this special issue to nurture future improvements in hardware, clinical protocols, and efficient post-processing strategies to further assess the diagnostic value of combined PET/MR imaging. It remains to be seen whether a so-called ‘‘killer application’’ for PET/ MRI will surface. In that case PET/MR is likely to excel in
Thomas Beyer and Ewald Moser contributed equally to this article. T. Beyer (&) cmi-experts GmbH, Wannenholzstr 26, 8046 Zurich, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] E. Moser MR Center of Excellence, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Lazarettgasse 14, Vienna, Austria e-mail: [email protected]
pre-clinical and selected research applications for now. This special issue helps the readers to stay on track of this exciting development. Keywords PET/MR PET/CT Attenuation correction Artifacts Safety Cancer
Driven by the fast-pace advances of combined imaging, editors and authors deemed it timely to provide the readers of MAGMA with a state-of-the-art summary of the status of combined PET and MR imaging. Or shall we say, combined MR and PET imaging? Or rather, PET/MR, or MR/PET? Does it matter? Well, it does to the heart of most of the readers. Depending on their scientific and clinical background, people would call this new imaging kid on the block either PET/MR, in case their origin is in the PET community, or MR/PET, if they are more sympathetic to the field of diagnostic radiology. Either way, what’s in a name? Time and linguists will tell. However, the introduction of a new combined and even fully integrated PET and MR imaging system should give rise to a clear separation (and subsequently definition) of retrospective and prospective image fusion. In this special issue we propose to use the term PET/MRI (or MR/PET)— spelled with a backslash—in case of hardware-b
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