The Impact of PET/MRI Fusion on the Diagnostic Imaging Industry

Abstract

The multimodal imaging technique has gained the spotlight in the present era due to its striking and immense applications. It is the combination of two or more modalities that complement one another to yield detailed information. Indubitably, it is an emerging and crucial technique due to its broad clinical and research applications. The diagnostic techniques with the dual modality are aligned for obtaining molecular data. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a progressive imaging technique in nuclear medicine. To flourish in the imaging industry, PET was combined with computed tomography (CT), but the fusion of the two provides some challenges, such as less soft tissue contrast and inefficiency of acquisition in simultaneous mode. As a result, another hybrid imaging technology, PET and MRI (PET/MRI), has been developed to provide more soft tissue contrast and less radiation dose exposure, leading this technique to be used extensively despite its shortcomings. This review study discusses the fusion of PET/MRI, technical challenges for their combination, commercially available models, and clinical applications observed in the wide areas of oncology, the cardiovascular system, the central nervous system, pediatrics, and inflammatory diseases.

Keywords

• hybrid imaging
• pet/mri
• technical challenges
• dose advantage