NEMA NU 4-2008 performance evaluation and MR compatibility tests of an APD-based small animal PET-insert for simultaneous PET/MR imaging

An avalanche photodiode (APD)-based small animal positron emission tomography (PET)-insert was fully evaluated for its PET performance, as well as potential influences on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performance. This PET-insert has an extended axial field of view (FOV) compared with the previous design to increase system sensitivity, as well as an updated cooling and temperature regulation to enable stable and reproducible PET acquisitions. The PET performance was evaluated according to the National Electrical Manufacturers Association NU4-2008 protocol. The energy and timing resolution's full width at half maximum were 16.1% and 4.7 ns, respectively. The reconstructed radial spatial resolution of the PET-insert was 1.8 mm full width at half maximum at the center FOV using filtered back projection for reconstruction and sensitivity was 3.68%. The peak noise equivalent count rates were 70 kcps for a rat-like and 350 kcps for a mouse-like phantom, respectively. Image quality phantom values and contrast recovery were comparable to state-of-the art PET-inserts and standalone systems. Regarding MR compatibility, changes in the mean signal-to-noise ratio for turbo spin echo and echo-planar imaging sequences were below 8.6%, for gradient echo sequences below 1%. Degradation of the mean homogeneity was below 2.3% for all tested sequences. The influence of the PET-insert on the B (0) maps was negligible and no influence on functional MRI sequences was detected. A mouse and rat imaging study demonstrated the feasibility of in vivo simultaneous PET/MRI.