Development of a Novel RF Body Coil Integrated with MR-Compatible PET Detector

Gary H. Glover¹, Craig S. Levin¹, Anton Linz², William T. Peterson², Sri Harsha Maramraju²

A hybrid PET/MR prototype for simultaneous PET/MR imaging has been developed. The scanner integrates a high performance Time-of-Flight MR-compatible PET system with a modified widebore MR scanner. A novel RF body coil design enables installation of the 25 cm axial length PET detector inside a conventional gradient coil with negligible impact on B1 homogeneity. Other measurements of signal-to-noise ratio, image temporal stability and geometric distortion parameters with the PET system powered off and on demonstrate negligible image degradation. Furthermore, PET energy and timing resolution measurements were not affected by MRI and confirm bilateral compatibility of the two modalities.