Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Current Cardiovascular Imaging Reports
Published in: Current Cardiovascular Imaging Reports 2/2013

01-04-2013 | Technological Advances in Cardiac Multi-modality Imaging (TH Schindler, Section Editor)

Cardiac PET/MRI

Authors: Lars Stegger, Christoph Schülke, Christian Wenning, Kambiz Rahbar, Peter Kies, Otmar Schober, Michael Schäfers

Published in: Current Cardiovascular Imaging Reports | Issue 2/2013

Login to get access

Abstract

Medical imaging plays an important role in clinical management of patients with cardiac diseases and in preclinical and clinical research. The recent availability of hybrid PET/MRI devices that combine positron emission tomography (PET) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) opens up new opportunities. Technical advancements have been necessary to make the two systems with different underlying principles work well together. Growing evidence points to a significant value of this novel modality for imaging of the myocardium and the coronary arteries in order to gain broad insight into the morphological, functional, molecular and cellular aspects of cardiac pathophysiology. PET/MRI can deliver the combined information of stand-alone PET and MRI with improved spatial and temporal co-registration; it can additionally be used to improve PET image quality and quantification accuracy by addressing factors such as motion and partial volume effects, making PET/MRI more than its parts.
Literature
1.
2.
Beyer T, Townsend DW, Brun T, et al. A combined PET/CT scanner for clinical oncology. J Nucl Med. 2000;41:1369–79.PubMed
3.
Naya M, Di Carli MF. Myocardial perfusion PET/CT to evaluate known and suspected coronary artery disease. Q J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2010;54:145–56.PubMed
4.
Kajander S, Joutsiniemi E, Saraste M, et al. Cardiac positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging accurately detects anatomically and functionally significant coronary artery disease. Circulation. 2010;122:603–13.PubMedCrossRef
5.
Wehrl HF, Judenhofer MS, Wiehr S, Pichler B. Pre-clinical PET/MR: technological advances and new perspectives in biomedical research. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2009;36 Suppl 1:S56–68.PubMedCrossRef
6.
7.
• Nekolla SG, Martinez-Moeller A, Saraste A. PET and MRI in cardiac imaging: from validation studies to integrated applications. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2009;36 Suppl 1:S121–30. Account of possible cardiac applications of combined PET/MR.PubMedCrossRef
8.
Salerno M, Beller GA. Noninvasive assessment of myocardial perfusion. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2009;2:412–24.PubMedCrossRef
9.
Bax JJ, Visser FC, van Lingen A, Cornel JH, Fioretti PM, van der Wall EE. Metabolic imaging using F18-fluorodeoxyglucose to assess myocardial viability. Int J Card Imaging. 1997;13:145–55.PubMedCrossRef
10.
Henneman MM, Bengel FM, van der Wall EE, Knuuti J, Bax JJ. Cardiac neuronal imaging: application in the evaluation of cardiac disease. J Nucl Cardiol. 2008;15:442–55.PubMedCrossRef
11.
Stegger L, Schäfers K, Kopka K, et al. Molecular cardiovascular imaging using scintigraphic methods. Eur Radiol. 2007;17:1422–32.PubMedCrossRef
12.
Kajander SA, Joutsiniemi E, Saraste M, et al. Clinical value of absolute quantification of myocardial perfusion with (15)O-water in coronary artery disease. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2011;4:678–84.PubMedCrossRef
13.
Livieratos L, Rajappan K, Stegger L, Schafers K, Bailey DL, Camici PG. Respiratory gating of cardiac PET data in list-mode acquisition. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2006;33:584–8.PubMedCrossRef
14.
Büther F, Dawood M, Stegger L, Wübbeling F, Schäfers M, Schober O, Schäfers KP. List mode-driven cardiac and respiratory gating in PET. J Nucl Med. 2009;50:674–81.PubMedCrossRef
15.
Livieratos L, Stegger L, Bloomfield PM, Schafers K, Bailey DL, Camici PG. Rigid-body transformation of list-mode projection data for respiratory motion correction in cardiac PET. Phys Med Biol. 2005;50:3313–22.PubMedCrossRef
16.
Dawood M, Büther F, Jiang X, Schäfers KP. Respiratory motion correction in 3-D PET data with advanced optical flow algorithms. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2008;27:1164–75.PubMedCrossRef
17.
Schaefer WM, Lipke CS, Nowak B, et al. Validation of QGS and 4D-MSPECT for quantification of left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction from gated 18F-FDG PET: comparison with cardiac MRI. J Nucl Med. 2004;45:74–9.PubMed
18.
Slart RH, Bax JJ, de Jong RM, et al. Comparison of gated PET with MRI for evaluation of left ventricular function in patients with coronary artery disease. J Nucl Med. 2004;45:176–82.PubMed
19.
Hofman HA, Knaapen P, Boellaard R, et al. Measurement of left ventricular volumes and function with O-15-labeled carbon monoxide gated positron emission tomography: comparison with magnetic resonance imaging. J Nucl Cardiol. 2005;12:639–44.PubMedCrossRef
20.
Croteau E, Bénard F, Cadorette J, Gauthier ME, Aliaga A, Bentourkia M, Lecomte R. Quantitative gated PET for the assessment of left ventricular function in small animals. J Nucl Med. 2003;44:1655–61.PubMed
21.
Stegger L, Heijman E, Schäfers KP, Nicolay K, Schäfers MA, Strijkers GJ. Quantification of left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction in mice using PET, compared with MRI. J Nucl Med. 2009;50:132–8.PubMedCrossRef
22.
Szymanski MK, Kruizinga S, Tio RA, et al. Use of gated 13N-NH3 micro-PET to examine left ventricular function in rats. Nucl Med Biol. 2012;39:724–9.PubMedCrossRef
23.
Florian A, Jurcut R, Ginghina C, Bogaert J. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in ischemic heart disease: a clinical review. J Med Life. 2011;4:330–45.PubMed
24.
Quarta G, Sado DM, Moon JC. Cardiomyopathies: focus on cardiovascular magnetic resonance. Br J Radiol. 2011;84:S296–305.PubMedCrossRef
25.
Stuber M, Weiss RG. Coronary magnetic resonance angiography. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2007;26:219–34.PubMedCrossRef
26.
Miao C, Chen S, Macedo R, et al. Positive remodeling of the coronary arteries detected by magnetic resonance imaging in an asymptomatic population: MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis). J Am Coll Cardiol. 2009;53:1708–15.PubMedCrossRef
27.
Gerretsen S, Kessels AG, Nelemans PJ, et al. Detection of coronary plaques using MR coronary vessel wall imaging: validation of findings with intravascular ultrasound. Eur Radiol. 2012. doi:10.​1007/​s00330-012-2576-1.
28.
29.
Neubauer AM, Myerson J, Caruthers SD, et al. Gadolinium-modulated 19F signals from Perfluorocarbon Nanoparticles as a New Strategy for Molecular Imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2008;60:1066–72.PubMedCrossRef
30.
31.
Hudsmith LE, Neubauer S. Detection of myocardial disorders by magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Nat Clin Pract Cardiovasc Med. 2008;5:S49–56.PubMedCrossRef
32.
Holloway C, Clarke K. Is MR spectroscopy of the heart ready for humans? Heart Lung Circ. 2010;19:154–60.PubMedCrossRef
33.
Zaidi H, Ojha N, Morich M, et al. Design and performance evaluation of a whole-body Ingenuity TF PET-MRI system. Phys Med Biol. 2011;56:3091–106.PubMedCrossRef
34.
Shao Y, Cherry SR, Farahani K, et al. Development of a PET detector system compatible with MRI/NMR systems. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci. 1997;44:1167–71.CrossRef
35.
Shao Y, Cherry SR, Farahani K, et al. Simultaneous PET and MR imaging. Phys Med Biol. 1997;42:1965–70.PubMedCrossRef
36.
Garlick PB, Marsden PK, Cave AC, et al. PET and NMR dual acquisition (PANDA): applications to isolated, perfused rat hearts. NMR Biomed. 1997;10:138–42.PubMedCrossRef
37.
Marsden PK, Strul D, Keevil SF, et al. Simultaneous PET and NMR. Br J Radiol. 2002;75:S53–9.PubMed
38.
Lucas A, Hawkes RC, Ansorge RE, et al. Development of a combined micro-PET-MR system. IEEE Nucl Sci Symp Conf Rec. 2006;2345–2348.
39.
Pichler B, Lorenz E, Mirzoyan R, Pimpl W, Roder F, Schwaiger M, Ziegler SI. Performance test of a LSO-APD PET Module in a 9.4 Tesla Magnet. IEEE Nucl Sci Symp Med Imaging Conf. 1998;1237–3129.
40.
Ziegler SI, Pichler BJ, Boening G, et al. A prototype high-resolution animal positron tomograph with avalanche photodiode arrays and LSO crystals. Eur J Nucl Med. 2001;28:136–43.PubMedCrossRef
41.
Catana C, Wu Y, Judenhofer MS, Qi J, Pichler BJ, Cherry SR. Simultaneous acquisition of multislice PET and MR images: initial results with a MR-compatible PET scanner. J Nucl Med. 2006;47:1968–76.PubMed
42.
Judenhofer MS, Catana C, Swann BK, et al. PET/MR images acquired with a compact MR-compatible PET detector in a 7T magnet. Radiology. 2007;244:807–14.PubMedCrossRef
43.
Judenhofer MS, Wehrl HF, Newport DF, et al. Simultaneous PET-MRI: a new approach for functional and morphological imaging. Nat Med. 2008;14:459–65.PubMedCrossRef
44.
Wu Y, Catana C, Farrell R, Dokhale PA, Shah KS, Qi J, Cherry SR. PET performance evaluation of an MR-compatible PET insert. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci. 2009;56:574–80.PubMedCrossRef
45.
Schlemmer HP, Pichler BJ, Schmand M, et al. Simultaneous MR/PET imaging of the human brain: feasibility study. Radiology. 2008;248:1028–35.PubMedCrossRef
46.
• Boss A, Bisdas S, Kolb A, et al. Hybrid PET/MRI of intracranial masses: initial experiences and comparison to PET/CT. J Nucl Med. 2010;51:1198–205. First clinical study with a simultaneous PET/MRI for brain tumor imaging.PubMedCrossRef
47.
Boss A, Kolb A, Hofmann M, et al. Diffusion tensor imaging in a human PET/MR hybrid system. Invest Radiol. 2010;45:270–4.PubMedCrossRef
48.
Stegger L, Martirosian P, Schwenzer N, et al. Simultaneous PET/MR imaging of the brain: feasibility of cerebral blood flow measurements with FAIR-TrueFISP arterial spin labeling MRI. Acta Radiol. 2012;53:1066–72.PubMedCrossRef
49.
Boss A, Stegger L, Bisdas S, et al. Feasibility of simultaneous PET/MR imaging in the head and upper neck area. Eur Radiol. 2011;21:1439–46.PubMedCrossRef
50.
• Kolb A, Wehrl HF, Hofmann M, et al. Technical performance evaluation of a human brain PET/MRI system. Eur Radiol. 2012;22:1776–88. Technical characterization of the first human brain PET/MRI system for simultaneous imaging.PubMedCrossRef
51.
• Delso G, Fürst S, Jakoby B, et al. Performance measurements of the Siemens mMR integrated whole-body PET/MR scanner. J Nucl Med. 2011;52:1914–22. Technical characterization of the first commercial PET/MRI system for simultaneous whole-body imaging.PubMedCrossRef
52.
Frangogiannis NG, Smith CW, Entman ML. The inflammatory response in myocardial infarction. Cardiovasc Res. 2002;53:31–47.PubMedCrossRef
53.
Nahrendorf M, Pittet MJ, Swirski FK. Monocytes: protagonists of infarct inflammation and repair after myocardial infarction. Circulation. 2010;121:2437–45.PubMedCrossRef
54.
Kramer CM, Sinusas AJ, Sosnovik DE, French BA, Bengel FM. Multimodality imaging of myocardial injury and remodeling. J Nucl Med. 2010;51 Suppl 1:107S–21S.PubMedCrossRef
55.
Shah P, Choi BG, Mazhari R. Positron emission tomography for the evaluation and treatment of cardiomyopathy. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2011;1228:137–49.PubMedCrossRef
56.
Nunes H, Freynet O, Naggara N, et al. Cardiac sarcoidosis. Semin Respir Crit Care Med. 2010;31:428–41.PubMedCrossRef
57.
Rahbar K, Seifarth H, Schäfers M, et al. Differentiation of malignant and benign cardiac tumors using 18F-FDG PET/CT. J Nucl Med. 2012;53:856–63.PubMedCrossRef
58.
Morton G, Chiribiri A, Ishida M, et al. Quantification of absolute myocardial perfusion in patients with coronary artery disease: comparison between cardiovascular magnetic resonance and positron emission tomography. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2012;60:1546–55.PubMedCrossRef
59.
McCommis KS, O’Connor R, Abendschein DR, Muccigrosso D, Gropler RJ, Zheng J. T(2) preparation method for measuring hyperemic myocardial O(2) consumption: in vivo validation by positron emission tomography. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2011;33:320–7.PubMedCrossRef
60.
de Haan S, Harms HJ, Lubberink M, et al. Parametric imaging of myocardial viability using 15O-labelled water and PET/CT: comparison with lategadolinium-enhanced CMR. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2012;39:1240–5.PubMedCrossRef
61.
• Uppal R, Catana C, Ay I, Benner T, Sorensen AG, Caravan P. Bimodal thrombus imaging: simultaneous PET/MR imaging with a fibrin-targeted dual PET/MR probe—feasibility study in rat model. Radiology. 2011;258:812–20. A study showing the value of combined PET/MRI and bimodal probes for thrombus imaging.PubMedCrossRef
62.
Frullano L, Catana C, Benner T, Sherry AD, Caravan P. Bimodal MR-PET agent for quantitative pH imaging. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2010;49:2382–4.PubMedCrossRef
63.
•• Büscher K, Judenhofer MS, Kuhlmann MT, et al. Isochronous assessment of cardiac metabolism and function in mice using hybrid PET/MRI. J Nucl Med. 2010;51:1277–84. First use of simultaneous PET/MR imaging for preclinical imaging of myocardial properties.PubMedCrossRef
64.
•• Lee WW, Marinelli B, van der Laan AM, et al. PET/MRI of inflammation in myocardial infarction. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2012;59:153–63. Innovative use of PET/MR imaging with a mouse positioning bed and sequential imaging in the important field of ischemic heart disease.PubMedCrossRef
65.
Makowski MR, Ebersberger U, Nekolla S, Schwaiger M. In vivo molecular imaging of angiogenesis, targeting alphavbeta3 integrin expression, in a patient after acute myocardial infarction. Eur Heart J. 2008;29:2201.PubMedCrossRef
66.
Hiari N, Rudd JH. FDG PET imaging and cardiovascular inflammation. Curr Cardiol Rep. 2011;13:43–8.PubMedCrossRef
67.
Rogers IS, Nasir K, Figueroa AL, et al. Feasibility of FDG imaging of the coronary arteries: comparison between acute coronary syndrome and stable angina. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2010;3:388–97.PubMedCrossRef
68.
Kato K, Schober O, Ikeda M, et al. Evaluation and comparison of 11C-choline uptake and calcification in aortic and common carotid arterial walls with combined PET/CT. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2009;36:1622–8.PubMedCrossRef
69.
Laitinen IE, Luoto P, Någren K, et al. Uptake of 11C-choline in mouse atherosclerotic plaques. J Nucl Med. 2010;51:798–802.PubMedCrossRef
70.
Saraste A, Laitinen I, Weidl E, et al. Diet intervention reduces uptake of αvβ3 integrin-targeted PET tracer 18F-galacto-RGD in mouse atherosclerotic plaques. J Nucl Cardiol. 2012;19:775–84.PubMedCrossRef
71.
Lucignani G, Schäfers M. PET, CT and MRI characterisation of the atherosclerotic plaque. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2010;37:2398–402.PubMedCrossRef
72.
Abdelbaky A, Tawakol A. Noninvasive positron emission tomography imaging of coronary arterial inflammation. Curr Cardiovasc Imaging Rep. 2011;4:41–9.PubMedCrossRef
73.
Hermann S, Starsichova A, Waschkau B, Kuhlmann M, Wenning C, Schober O, Schäfers M. Non-FDG imaging of atherosclerosis: will imaging of MMPs assess plaque vulnerability? J Nucl Cardiol. 2012;19:609–17.PubMedCrossRef
74.
Fayad ZA, Mani V, Woodward M, et al. Rationale and design of dal-PLAQUE: a study assessing efficacy and safety of dalcetrapib on progression or regression of atherosclerosis using magnetic resonance imaging and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography. Am Heart J. 2011;162:214–21.PubMedCrossRef
75.
Vucic E, Calcagno C, Dickson SD, et al. Regression of inflammation in atherosclerosis by the LXR agonist R211945: a noninvasive assessment and comparison with atorvastatin. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2012;5:819–28.PubMedCrossRef
76.
Tang TY, Moustafa RR, Howarth SP, et al. Combined PET-FDG and USPIO-enhanced MR imaging in patients with symptomatic moderate carotid artery stenosis. Eur J Vasc Endovasc Surg. 2008;36:53–5.PubMedCrossRef
77.
Lamare F, Ledesma Carbayo MJ, Cresson T, et al. List-mode-based reconstruction for respiratory motion correction in PET using non-rigid body transformations. Phys Med Biol. 2007;52:5187–204.PubMedCrossRef
78.
• Tsoumpas C, Mackewn JE, Halsted P, et al. Simultaneous PET-MR acquisition and MR-derived motion fields for correction of non-rigid motion in PET. Ann Nucl Med. 2010;24:745–50. Demonstration of MR-based motion correction in a phantom using a single-slice PET system inside an MRI.PubMedCrossRef
79.
• Dikaios N, Izquierdo-Garcia D, Graves MJ, Mani V, Fayad ZA, Fryer TD. MRI-based motion correction of thoracic PET: initial comparison of acquisition protocols and correction strategies suitable for simultaneous PET/MRI systems. Eur Radiol. 2012;22:439–46. MR-based PET motion correction approaches evaluated in a simulation of simultaneous PET/MRI acquisition.PubMedCrossRef
80.
•• Chun SY, Reese TG, Ouyang J, et al. MRI-based nonrigid motion correction in simultaneous PET/MRI. J Nucl Med. 2012;53:1284–91. MR-based correction of motion in a simultaneous PET/MR system investigated in phantom and animal experiments.PubMedCrossRef
81.
•• Würslin C, Schmidt H, Martirosian P, Brendle C, Boss A, Schwenzer NF, Stegger L. Respiratory motion correction in oncological PET using T1-weighted MR imaging on a simultaneous whole-body PET/MR system. J Nucl Med. Accepted for publication. Demonstration of MR-based correction of PET images for respiratory motion using simultaneous PET/MRI in a clinical setting useful for oncological but also cardiac imaging.
82.
Erlandsson K, Buvat I, Pretorius PH, Thomas BA, Hutton BF. A review of partial volume correction techniques for emission tomography and their applications in neurology, cardiology and oncology. Phys Med Biol. 2012;57:R119–59.PubMedCrossRef
83.
• Izquierdo-Garcia D, Davies JR, Graves MJ, et al. Comparison of methods for magnetic resonance-guided [18-F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in human carotid arteries: reproducibility, partial volume correction, and correlation between methods. Stroke. 2009;40:86–93. An evaluation of the value of partial volume correction in plaque imaging demonstrated in coronary arteries. Combined PET/MRI may facilitate this procedure.PubMedCrossRef
84.
Eiber M, Martinez-Möller A, Souvatzoglou M, et al. Value of a Dixon-based MR/ PET attenuation correction sequence for the localization and evaluation of PET-positive lesions. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2011;38:1691–701.PubMedCrossRef
85.
Keereman V, Fierens Y, Broux T, De Deene Y, Lonneux M, Vandenberghe S. MRI-based attenuation correction for PET/MRI using ultrashort echo time sequences. J Nucl Med. 2010;51:812–8.PubMedCrossRef
86.
Hofmann M, Steinke F, Scheel V. MRI-based attenuation correction for PET/MRI: a novel approach combining pattern recognition and atlas registration. J Nucl Med. 2008;49:1875–83.PubMedCrossRef
Metadata
Title
Cardiac PET/MRI
Authors
Lars Stegger
Christoph Schülke
Christian Wenning
Kambiz Rahbar
Peter Kies
Otmar Schober
Michael Schäfers
Publication date
01-04-2013
Publisher
Current Science Inc.
Published in
Current Cardiovascular Imaging Reports / Issue 2/2013
Print ISSN: 1941-9066
Electronic ISSN: 1941-9074
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12410-012-9189-6

Other articles of this Issue 2/2013

Current Cardiovascular Imaging Reports 2/2013 Go to the issue

Hot Topic

Beyond Coronary Stenosis: Coronary Computed Tomographic Angiography for the Assessment of Atherosclerotic Plaque Burden

Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (E Nagel, Section Editor)

Noninvasive Assessment of Myocardial Dyssynchrony Prior to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

Technological Advances in Cardiac Multi-modality Imaging (TH Schindler, Section Editor)

Cardiac PET/MRI

Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (E Nagel, Section Editor)

Oxygenation and Flow in the Limbs: Novel Methods to Characterize Peripheral Artery Disease

Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (E Nagel, Section Editor)

Comparison of MR and CT for the Assessment of the Significance of Coronary Artery Disease: a Review

Technological Advances in Cardiac Multi-modality Imaging (TH Schindler, Section Editor)

Cardiac PET-CT and CT Angiography

ACC 2024 Congress Coverage

Year in Review: Heart failure and cardiomyopathies

Heart Failure Video

Watch this official video from ACC.24. Dr. Biykem Bozkurt discusses last year's major advances in heart failure and cardiomyopathies.

Watch now

Semaglutide benefits people with type 2 diabetes and obesity-related heart failure

16-04-2024 Type 2 Diabetes News

Incentivised to exercise

11-04-2024 Lifestyle Modifications News

New intervention for STEMI-related cardiogenic shock

10-04-2024 Myocardial Infarction News

» View more highlights on the ACC 2024 congress hub page

Image Credits