Impact of MR-Based Attenuation Correction on Neurologic PET Studies

Hybrid positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance (MR) scanners have become a reality in recent years with the benefits of reduced radiation exposure, reduction of imaging time, and potential advantages in quantification. Appropriate attenuation correction remains a challenge. Biases in PET activity measurements were demonstrated using the current MR based attenuation correction technique. We aim to investigate the impact of using standard MRAC technique on the clinical and research utility of PET/MR hybrid scanner for amyloid imaging. Methods Florbetapir scans were obtained on 40 participants on a Biograph mMR hybrid scanner with simultaneous MR acquisition. PET images were reconstructed using both MR and CT derived attenuation map. Quantitative analysis was performed for both datasets to assess the impact of MR based attenuation correction to absolute PET activity measurements as well as target to reference ratio (SUVR). Clinical assessment was also performed by a nuclear medicine physician to determine amyloid status based on the criteria in the FDA prescribing information for florbetapir.