Motion correction in PET-MRI: A human torso phantom study

Respiratory and cardiac motion as degrading factors in PET imaging have been tackled by gating and subsequent PET-based motion detection techniques. The limitation of these approaches, however, is that only regions with high uptake yield sufficient motion information. Motion detection for tiny structures, e.g. arteriosclerotic plaques or small tumors, can prove difficult. In PET-MRI, the simultaneously acquired MR data are a promising source of motion information. In the present work, we give preliminary results for motion correction of PET data using information derived from MR data. A human torso phantom capable of simulating cardiac and respiratory motion was used to generate realistic data. Our preliminary results show that motion correction in PET-MRI is a promising approach.