Development of a novel RF body coil integrated with MR-compatible PET detector

Objectives: The hybrid PET/MR prototype from GE Healthcare integrates a high performance Time-of -Flight MR-compatible PET system with a high performance MR scanner for simultaneous PET/MR imaging. The MR system is based on GE’s MR750w scanner, while the PET system is designed and developed with MR-compatible detector components to function in the MR environment. In this study, we evaluated the impact of the PET detector ring on the performance of the novel PET/MR RF body coil, which is uniquely designed and constructed to accommodate the PET detector ring integrated with the body coil and residing inside the gradient coil. In addition, the performance of the PET system during active MR acquisition was evaluated.