Initial experience on protocol optimization for integrated PET/MR

Objective: To investigate the optimal workflow and protocol for integrated PET/MR by comparison with PET/CT. Methods: A total of 228 patients were enrolled in this study for PET/CT and PET/MR evaluation on the same day. Six PET/MR protocols with different MR sequences but the same PET acquisition protocol were investigated and the optimal protocol was identified based on image quality, acquisition time and diagnostic performance. Results: PET/MR workflow was similar to PET/CT, however, some special issues needed to be considered for PET/MR. Among the 6 protocols, protocol No.6 outperformed others for body and head regions. Types of artifacts were found more often in PET/MR than in PET/CT. Conclusions: By optimizing the protocol, PET/MR could achieve almost the same diagnostic performance as PET/CT. However, the issues of long acquisition time and artifacts on PET/MR need to be further improved. (authors)