An overview of PET/MR, focused on clinical applications.
Hybrid PET/MR scanners are innovative imaging devices that simultaneously or sequentially acquire and fuse anatomical and functional data from magnetic resonance (MR) with metabolic information from positron emission tomography (PET) (Delso et al. in J Nucl Med 52:1914-1922, 2011; Zaidi et al. in Phys Med Biol 56:3091-3106, 2011). Hybrid PET/MR scanners have the potential to greatly impact not only on medical research but also, and more importantly, on patient management. Although their clinical applications are still under investigation, the increased worldwide availability of PET/MR scanners, and the growing published literature are important determinants in their rising utilization for primarily clinical applications. In this manuscript, we provide a summary of the physical features of PET/MR, including its limitations, which are most relevant to clinical PET/MR implementation and to interpretation. Thereafter, we discuss the most important current and emergent clinical applications of such hybrid technology in the abdomen and pelvis, both in the field of oncologic and non-oncologic imaging, and we provide, when possible, a comparison with clinically consolidated imaging techniques, like for example PET/CT.
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 49 13th St, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA. onofriocatalano@yahoo.it.|Abdominal Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit St, Boston, MA, 02114, USA. onofriocatalano@yahoo.it.
Onofrio Antonio
0000-0001-7733-4138
OA
Catalano
Department of Radiology, Abdominal Imaging, University of Michigan Health System, 1550E Medical Center Dr, SPC5030, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
William Roger
WR
Masch
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 49 13th St, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.
Ciprian
C
Catana
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 49 13th St, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.|Institute of Precision Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit St, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
Umar
U
Mahmood
Abdominal Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit St, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
Dushyant Vasudeo
DV
Sahani
Abdominal Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit St, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.|Martinos Center for Pediatric Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit St, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
Michael Stanley
MS
Gee
Institute of Nuclear Medicine, University College Hospital, 235 Euston Rd, Fitzrovia, London, NW1 2BU, UK.
Leon
L
Menezes
University of Naples "Parthenope", Via Medina 40, 80133, Naples, Italy.
Andrea
A
Soricelli
Medicina Nucleare, Fondazione SDN, Via Gianturco 113, Naples, 80113, Italy.
Marco
M
Salvatore
Abdominal Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit St, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
Debra
D
Gervais
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 49 13th St, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.
Bruce Robert
BR
Rosen
D000005:Abdomen / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography
Attenuation correction; MR/PET; Oncologic imaging; PET/MR