Abstract #1009

Simultaneous MRS and PET of the Human Brain in Healthy and Brain Tumor Subjects

Ovidiu Cristian Andronesi¹, Ciprian Catana¹, Heisoog Kim¹, Dominique Jennings¹, Nouha Salibi², Michael Hamm², Josef Pfeuffer², Elizabeth Gerstner³, Tracy Batchelor³, A. Gregory Sorensen¹

¹Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA; ²MGH-Martinos Center, Siemens Medical Solutions USA INC., Charlestown, MA, USA; ³Neuro-Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

MRS and PET provide valuable information about tissue metabolic state in studies of the normal brain and pathological conditions. Potentially, the two techniques complement each other for increasing the specificity and diagnosis accuracy in a complex disease such as brain cancer. Recent progress has enabled the simultaneous acquisition of MR and PET data from the human brain using a combined scanner [1]. Here we report first MRS and PET data obtained on human brain tumors with a similar MR-PET prototype scanner. Our preliminary results clearly indicate the need for complementary information which can have immediate impact on treatment management and prognosis.