Fig 5.

Molecular Imaging of atherosclerosis by hybrid PET-CT and MR-PET. Inflammation in plaques of hypercholesterolemic rabbits can be assessed and quantified by 18F-FDG PET and co-localized to carotid artery by simultaneously acquired MRI. Panel A: TOF angiography, Panel B, contrast enhanced fat-suppressed T1 weighted MRI (delayed enhancement), Panel C: MR-PET fusion showing increase tracer accumulation around the left carotid artery. Images demonstrate good correlation of PET signal and contrast-enhanced MRI but also show limited spatial resolution of PET technology. Hybrid Molecular Imaging in a patient with large-vessel vasculitis (Panels D-L). Increased 18F-FDG uptake can be visualized by whole-body PET and correctly co-localized to the aortic arch by the subsequently performed contrasted enhanced CT (Panels D-G: PET-CT). Similar co-localization can be performed using hybrid MR-PET (Panels H-J). Whole body MRA (Panel K) and CTA (Panel L) can be routinely performed during hybrid image acquisition. Images courtesy of Isabel Dregely, Stefan Nekolla and Ambros J. Beer from the Munich PET/MR consortium of TUM and LMU (funded by DFG).