PET-MRI Scanner and its Use in Clinical Trials

Apart from PET-CT (Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography) another hybrid imaging technology that is available in the market is a hybrid of PET-MR (Positron Emission Tomography-Magnetic Resonance). This hybrid helps in the incorporation of morphological imaging of soft tissue using MR scanning and functional imaging using PET. Morphological imaging provides the information on form, shape and structure of the organ imaged, and functional imaging helps to determine or measure changes in metabolism, blood flow, chemical composition and absorption in a particular region or organ, and these information's are highly essential in diagnosing or examining a disease or the response to drugs. There are very few companies that have manufactured the hybrid of PET-MR scanner which includes Siemens, Philips, GE etc. Philips was the first scanner in which whole body PET-MR systems were installed in a medical facility in US and Europe. This hybrid scanner is the newest technology in medical imaging which started being available in the market only in the year 2012. Even though this hybrid model is currently available in the market, there is still a significant amount of work that is required to overcome all the technical hurdles and develop the technology further. This scanner has been said to be a revolutionary technology in clinical nuclear medicine and shows promise in forming a highly dependable and accurate method in diagnosing different types of cancers. At the same time it also helps to determine the accurate therapy or treatment for patients for their conditions.

When multimodality imaging first came into picture that is by use of PET-CT, it had brought about a new perspective in the field of pre-clinical and clinical imaging trials. Studies have shown that combining the anatomical structures that are obtained from CT imaging and functional aspects of the body revealed in PET images with high accuracy in fusing them generates an advanced diagnostic tool and research platform. Although PET-CT brought about a significant improvement in health care industry by their use in clinical studies, it has certain drawbacks. One of the major limitations is that when a significant radiation dose is used on patients and/or animals, CT generates limited soft tissue contrast. Another limitation with PET-CT is that it does not allow simultaneous data acquisition as the PET and CT scanners are hard-wired back to back. It only allows sequential scanning which is a temporal mismatch that leads to artifacts in patient scanning. Thus in order to overcome these drawbacks or limitations, further researches were done with the aim of combining PET and MR imaging systems into a single machine. The main goal was to ensure simultaneous data acquisition by integrating PET detectors into MR imaging scanner thereby generating the desired soft tissue contrast that would be displayed on images obtained simultaneously from PET- MR which has now captured a fusion of functional and morphological aspects of the human body. This type of images generated also provides excellent anatomical spatial resolution and highly accurate fusion temporal and spatial images. In addition to the above mentioned attributes, spectroscopic information can also be generated with this hybrid scanner. It also provides in vivo multi-functional information of physiological processes. Initial experiments and studies conducted with PET-MR scanners showed conclusive and promising results proving its great potential for clinical and non-clinical imaging research studies.

Additional score points for PET-MR imaging scanners are that, it is a completely radiation free technology that enables patients to give consent to participate in a clinical trial without the fear of radiation exposure. It takes up to 50% less scanning time as compared to other medical imaging techniques. It's highly cost effective hence many hospitals have incorporated these scanners. Thus sponsors planning to conduct clinical study with the use of these scanners easily can locate sites that would be interested to participate in the study, and hence move on to each step in the research rather quickly. Clinical application of PET-MR imaging scanners include studies on brain: brain at activation and rest, in de-coding brain networks and its function, head and neck cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, colorectal cancer, lymphoma and pediatric neoplasm.

To sum up, PET-MR imaging scanning is a revolution in diagnostic imaging for life. It helps to advance the management of disease and improve patient care by generating comprehensive diagnostic picture into one scan, increase productivity with reduced cost by one exam instead of two, open newer medical applications to assist in advanced research and reduced radiation exposure to the participating patients.

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Kamal Nani has published 18 articles. Article submitted on November 26, 2013. Word count: 758

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