title: PET/MR in children. Initial clinical experience in paediatric oncology using an integrated PET/MR scanner.
abstract: Use of PET/MR in children has not previously been reported, to the best of our knowledge. Children with systemic malignancies may benefit from the reduced radiation exposure offered by PET/MR. We report our initial experience with PET/MR hybrid imaging and our current established sequence protocol after 21 PET/MR studies in 15 children with multifocal malignant diseases. The effective dose of a PET/MR scan was only about 20% that of the equivalent PET/CT examination. Simultaneous acquisition of PET and MR data combines the advantages of the two previously separate modalities. Furthermore, the technique also enables whole-body diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and statements to be made about the biological cellularity and nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio of tumours. Combined PET/MR saves time and resources. One disadvantage of PET/MR is that in order to have an effect, a significantly longer examination time is needed than with PET/CT. In our initial experience, PET/MR has turned out to be an unexpectedly stable and reliable hybrid imaging modality, which generates a complementary diagnostic study of great additional value.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Radiology, University of Leipzig, Liebigstr. 20a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany. hirw@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
authors.forename: Franz Wolfgang
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Hirsch
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sattler
authors.forename: Ina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sorge
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kurch
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Viehweger
authors.forename: Lutz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ritter
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.forename: Thies
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jochimsen
authors.forename: Henryk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Barthel
authors.forename: Uta
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bierbach
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Till
authors.forename: Osama
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sabri
authors.forename: Regine
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kluge
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008297:Male; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011874:Radiometry; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity