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PET/MRI: Technical Challenges and Recent Advances

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Abstract

Integrated positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can provide complementary functional and anatomical information about a specific organ or body system at the molecular level, has become a powerful imaging modality to understand the molecular biology details, disease mechanisms, and pharmacokinetics in animals and humans. Although the first experiment on the PET/MRI was performed in the early 1990s, its clinical application was accomplished in recent years because there were various technical challenges in integrating PET and MRI in a single system with minimum mutual interference between PET and MRI. This paper presents the technical challenges and recent advances in combining PET and MRI along with several approaches for improving PET image quality of the PET/MRI hybrid imaging system.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Programs (No. 2013R1A1A2006870 and No. 2013R1A1A2058563) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) of the Ministry of Education and by the Commercializations Promotion Agency for R&D Outcomes (COMPA) of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MISP), Republic of Korea.

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  1. Molecular Imaging Research & Education Laboratory, Department of Electronic Engineering, Sogang University, 35 Baekbeom-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 04107, Korea

    Jin Ho Jung, Yong Choi & Ki Chun Im

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  1. Jin Ho Jung
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Correspondence to Yong Choi.

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Jin Ho Jung, Yong Choi and Ki Chun Im declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Jung, J.H., Choi, Y. & Im, K.C. PET/MRI: Technical Challenges and Recent Advances. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 50, 3–12 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-016-0393-1

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