title: Design and performance from an integrated PET/MRI system  for small animals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although simultaneous measurements of PET and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide interesting results in molecular imaging research, most of the combined systems are huge and animal handling in the system is not easy. To minimize these problems, we developed a compact integrated PET/MRI (iPET/MRI) system for small animals.
  
  
  METHODS
  For the iPET/MRI system, a new MR-compatible PET and a permanent magnet open MRI were designed. In the MRI, a tunnel is opened at the yoke of the magnet. The position-sensitive photo-multiplier tubes (PSPMTs) of the MR-compatible PET are positioned at the back of the yoke where the magnetic field is sufficiently low. The scintillators for the PET system are positioned at the center of the MRI magnets, and the direction of the scintillation photons is changed by slanted light guides, and they are fed to the PSPMTs by 75 cm long optical fiber bundles. The PET detectors employed two types of LGSO crystals (1.9 mm x 2.2 mm x 6 mm and 7 mm) with different decay times (33 and 43 ns) for depth of interaction detection. Sixteen optical fiber-based block detectors are arranged in a 112 mm diameter ring.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The transaxial field-of-view (FOV) of the PET system is ~80 mm, and the axial FOV is 21 mm which can be enlarged by the axial motion of the PET detector ring during MRI acquisition. The transaxial and axial resolutions at the center of the PET system was 2.9 and 2.4 mm FWHM, respectively. The absolute sensitivity was 1.5% at the center of the axial FOV. Phantom images revealed no artifact in either the PET or MRI images. We successfully obtained simultaneously measured small animal images using the iPET/MRI system.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The open geometry of the developed iPET/ MRI facilitates easy accessibility to the subject. The iPET/ MRI system appears to be a promising tool for molecular imaging research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Kobe City College of Technology, 8-3 Gakuen-Higashi-machi, Nishi-ku, Kobe 651-2194, Japan. s-yama@kobe-kosen.ac.jp
authors.forename: Seiichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Imaizumi
authors.forename: Yasukazu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kanai
authors.forename: Mitsuaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tatsumi
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sugiyama
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawakami
authors.forename: Eku
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Shimosegawa
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hatazawa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004867:Equipment Design; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008297:Male; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D018511:Systems Integration; D013997:Time Factors