Buerger, Christian

King, Andrew

Mackewn, Jane E.

Marsden, Paul

Schaeffter, Tobias

Totman, John

Tsoumpas, Charalampos

Objectives: Subject motion is one of the main factors limiting PET performance. In this study we demonstrate the use of simultaneous PET-MR to motion-correct PET images using motion fields estimated from simultaneously acquired MR data. Methods: PET and MR data were acquired with a small MR-compatible PET system (Mackewn et al. 2008) and a 3T clinical MR (Achieva, Philips Healthcare) with a standard receive-only head-coil. Phantom experiments were performed to investigate corrections for rigid and non-rigid motion. A hot-rod resolution phantom (OD:3cm) was filled uniformly with water and 18F, and rotated in discrete steps. PET-MR data were reconstructed at each position. To simulate non-rigid motion three stationary line sources were added adjacent to the rotating phantom. Rigid and non-rigid MR deformation fields were obtained by a normalised mutual information intensity-based registration (Rueckert et al. 1999) of each position with the reference. The sequential PET images were i) added to create an uncorrected image; ii) transformed and added to create a motion-corrected image. A stationary PET image with similar total counts was also acquired. Results: The uncorrected PET image showed clear artefacts and loss of resolution, whilst individual stationary frames were less blurred but had poor SNR. Both rigid and non-rigid corrected image show significant reduction in artefacts and increased SNR, and are comparable with the images acquired with no motion. Conclusions: We used simultaneously acquired PET-MR data to demonstrate that MR-derived motion fields can be used to motion-correct dynamic PET images. Research Support: The research leading to this project has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreement No: 201651

PET motion correction using simultaneous PET-MR acquisition and MR-derived motion fields

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