TY - JOUR
T1 - A Novel Method in PET Image Reconstruction Using MRI Anatomical Priors
AU - Khalighi, M. Mehdi
AU - Young, Christina B.
AU - Spangler-Bickell, Matthew G.
AU - Deller, Timothy W.
AU - Jansen, Floris
AU - Holley, Dawn
AU - Vossler, Hillary
AU - Zhao, Moss Y.
AU - Kogan, Feliks
AU - Steinberg, Gary
AU - Mormino, Elizabeth
AU - Moseley, Michael
AU - Zaharchuk, Greg
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 IEEE. All rights reserved.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - The current spatial resolution of PET images is 3-4 mm for whole body PET/MR. Anatomical MR images with higher resolution and superior image quality have been used in PET reconstruction to improve the image quality and spatial resolution; however, mismatches between MR priors and actual tracer distribution can hinder accuracy. A novel PET reconstruction with MR priors, Magnetic Resonance-guided Block Sequential Regularized Expectation Maximum (MRgBSREM), that is robust to mismatches between anatomical priors and true activity distribution is proposed. This method is evaluated in diverse clinical settings using various tracers: 18F-florbetaben (FBB) in 373 subjects from a dementia study, 18F-FDG in a patient with chronic ischemic stroke, 18F-NaF in a knee study, and 15Owater in a patient with Moyamoya disease. Reconstruction using MRgBSREM visually improved both spatial resolution and image quality in all studies. In the 18F-florbetaben study, it mitigated white-matter spill-in into gray-matter as well as gray-matter spill over to the adjacent tissues, potentially leading to more accurate measurement of FBB uptake in the gray-matter. Visual assessment suggests that the proposed PET reconstruction enhances spatial resolution, which may contribute to improved diagnostic accuracy, while it displays robustness to mismatches between MR priors and true activity distribution.
AB - The current spatial resolution of PET images is 3-4 mm for whole body PET/MR. Anatomical MR images with higher resolution and superior image quality have been used in PET reconstruction to improve the image quality and spatial resolution; however, mismatches between MR priors and actual tracer distribution can hinder accuracy. A novel PET reconstruction with MR priors, Magnetic Resonance-guided Block Sequential Regularized Expectation Maximum (MRgBSREM), that is robust to mismatches between anatomical priors and true activity distribution is proposed. This method is evaluated in diverse clinical settings using various tracers: 18F-florbetaben (FBB) in 373 subjects from a dementia study, 18F-FDG in a patient with chronic ischemic stroke, 18F-NaF in a knee study, and 15Owater in a patient with Moyamoya disease. Reconstruction using MRgBSREM visually improved both spatial resolution and image quality in all studies. In the 18F-florbetaben study, it mitigated white-matter spill-in into gray-matter as well as gray-matter spill over to the adjacent tissues, potentially leading to more accurate measurement of FBB uptake in the gray-matter. Visual assessment suggests that the proposed PET reconstruction enhances spatial resolution, which may contribute to improved diagnostic accuracy, while it displays robustness to mismatches between MR priors and true activity distribution.
KW - Anatomical Priors
KW - Image Reconstruction
KW - MRI
KW - PET
KW - PET/MRI
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105001048900&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TRPMS.2025.3553409
DO - 10.1109/TRPMS.2025.3553409
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105001048900
SN - 2469-7311
JO - IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences
JF - IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences
ER -