FDG PET/MR Imaging in Major Neurocognitive Disorders

Abstract

PET/MRI tomographs represent the latest development in hybrid molecular imaging, opening new perspectives for clinical and research applications and attracting a large interest among the medical community. This new hybrid modality is expected to play a pivotal role in a number of clinical applications and among these the assessment of neurodegenerative disorders. PET and MRI, acquired separately, are already the imaging biomarkers of choice for a comprehensive assessment of the changes occurring in dementias (major cognitive disorders) as well as in their prodromal phase. In this paper we review the current evidence on the use of integrated PET/MRI scanners to investigate patients with neurodegenerative conditions, and in particular major neurocognitive disorders. The number of studies performed is still limited and shows that the use of PET/MRI gives results overall comparable to PET/CT and MRI acquired independently. We also address the challenges for quantitative aspects in PET/MRI, namely attenuation, partial volume and motion correction and the use of semi-quantitative approaches for FDG PET image analysis in this framework. The recent development of PET tracers for the in vivo differential diagnosis of dementias, able to visualize amyloid and tau deposits, suggests that in the future PET/MRI might represent the investigation of choice for a single session evaluation of morphological, functional and molecular markers.

Functional impact of subthalamotomy by magnetic resonance–guided focused ultrasound in Parkinson’s disease: a hybrid PET/MR study of resting-state brain metabolism

“…Furthermore, the use of hybrid PET/MR acquisition and and in the hemibody contralateral to the treatment (ΔUPDRS-treated). c Whole-brain voxel-wise correlation analysis confirmed significant correlation in the STN and finds a significantly positive correlation in the mid putamen PVE correction in the current study may contribute to increase the sensitivity in discriminating between metabolic brain states [30,31].…”

Diagnostic Utility of Integrated11C-Pittsburgh Compound B Positron Emission Tomography/Magnetic Resonance for Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy: A Pilot Study

“…Cerebral amyloid angiopathy diagnosis might be improved by combining the complementary information of lobar CMBs and β amyloid burden. The newly emerging PET/MR imaging method integrates the advantages of PET and MR and has been used to diagnose and monitor patients with various neurodegenerative conditions (Mainta et al, 2017). To our knowledge, no study has investigated the diagnostic value of combining amyloid deposition and CMB distribution, specifically in CAA and AD patients and cognitively normal healthy controls (NC) using integrated PET/MR.…”

The impact of atlas-based MR attenuation correction on the diagnosis of FDG-PET/MR for Alzheimer’s diseases— A simulation study combining multi-center data and ADNI-data

“…Integrated positron emission tomography (PET) / magnetic resonance (MR) systems have been currently widely distributed (over 100 institutions in the world). Previous studies have revealed that 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG)-PET/MR is useful in the evaluation of neurodegenerative diseases [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Additionally, combined PET/MR not only provides detailed brain anatomy, but the immediate availability of coregistered anatomy might even improve PET image quality by facilitating the correction of partial volume effects and/or motion artifacts [7,8].…”