Cardiovascular hybrid imaging using PET/MRI

Abstract

The following overview provides a summary of the state of the art and research as well as potential clinical applications of cardiovascular PET/MR imaging. PET/MRI systems have been clinically available for a few years, and their use in cardiac imaging has been successfully demonstrated. At this period in time, some of the technical difficulties that arose at the beginning have been solved; in particular with respect to MRI-based attenuation correction, caution should be exercised with PET quantification. In addition, many promising technical options are still in the developmental stage, such as MRI-based motion correction of PET data resulting from simultaneous MR acquisition, and are not yet available for cardiovascular imaging. On the other hand, PET/MRI has been used to demonstrate significant pathologies such as acute and chronic myocardial infarction, myocarditis or cardiac sarcoidosis; future applications in clinical routine or within studies appear to be possible. In coming years additional studies will have to be performed to prove diagnostic gain at a reasonable cost-benefit ratio before valid conclusions are possible regarding the clinical utility and future of cardiovascular PET/MR imaging.