CLINICAL PERSPECTIVES OF PET/MRI – A REVIEW ARTICLE

Dr. Jigar Salvi* and Dr. Archana Salvi

ABSTRACT

Hybrid PET/MRI is a recently developed technique that is gaining a growing interest from the medical community owing to its potential clinical applications. It leverages the high soft-tissue contrast and the functional sequences of MR with the molecular information of PET in one single, hybrid imaging technology. Studies on indirect PET/MRI have already generated interesting preliminary data to pave the ground for potential applications of PET/MRI. These initial data convey that PET/MRI is promising in neuroncology and head & neck cancer applications as well as neoplasms in the abdomen and pelvis. The pediatric and young adult oncology population requiring frequent follow-up studies as well as pregnant woman might benefit from PET/MRI due to its lower ionizing radiation dose. PET/MRI couples the MR strengths of superior soft-tissue contrast compared to CT and sophisticated sequences to characterize the microenvironment of the neoplasm with PET‟s molecular and metabolic information of tumor biology.

Keywords: Cancer MRI, PET, Soft-tissue.