Abstract #3089

Design of a Docking PET and Field-Cycled MRI System for Small Animal Imaging

Geron Andre Bindseil¹, Timothy J. Scholl¹, William B. Handler¹, Blaine A. Chronik¹

¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

There is great interest in combining functional and anatomical imaging systems. Current approaches to PET/MRI typically a) change PET to make it compatible with conventional MRI, or b) change MRI to make it compatible with conventional PET. An approach of the latter kind is investigated and the design of a docking PET/Field-Cycled MRI (FCMRI) system using the Siemens Inveon small-animal PET is proposed. Advantages of PET/FCMRI over other PET/MRI approaches for small-animal preclinical imaging are explored.