Abstract #2810

Challenges for MR-Based Attenuation Correction in PET Imaging of the Head

Andre Jan Willem van der Kouwe^1,2, Ciprian Catana^1,2, Thomas Benner^1,2, Christian J. Michel³, Michael Hamm⁴, Sonia Nielles-Vallespin⁵, Stephan Kannengiesser⁵, Matthias Fenchel⁵, Bruce R. Rosen^1,2, A. Gregory Sorensen^1,2

¹Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; ²Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Brookline, MA, USA; ³Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc., Knoxville, TN, USA; ⁴Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc., Charlestown, MA, USA; ⁵Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany

Attenuation correction (AC) is essential for accurate reconstruction of PET images. With combined MR-PET scanners such as the prototype Siemens BrainPET/3T TIM Trio combination, CT and transmission source data are unavailable for AC purposes. We demonstrate that with this head imaging system, the skull and the location of the MR RF coil can be detected with radially encoded ultrashort TE imaging and that inclusion of the RF coil in the AC map is critical for precise PET image reconstruction.