Aspect Imaging and Brightonix Imaging are showcasing a commercial, compact MRI insert for simultaneous PET/MRI operation at this year’s World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC) in Seattle, Washington.

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Image: MRI Scan underway. Photo: Courtesy of Ken Treloar/Unsplash.

The ‘SimPET’ was originally introduced 2 years ago at WMIC 2016, integrating Aspect Imaging’s M7 compact MRI with Brightonix Imaging’s novel PET insert ‘SimPET’.

The SimPET insert is now offered to all preclinical researchers, with clear magnet bore sizes from 16 cm to 40 cm and field strengths from 3.0 Tesla to 11.74 Tesla. The outer diameter of SimPET is 99 mm and will fit within gradient coil diameters of 100 mm and greater.

Researchers will now have the ability to upgrade standard preclinical research MRIs with a cost-effective PET insert, as well as the option of using SimPET in the Aspect M7 magnet.

The SimPET insert is fully compatible with existing high-field MRI systems, allowing unprecedented soft tissue contrast in a multi-modality format, and offers superior detection sensitivity of hyper-metabolic activity. Combining SimPET with your existing MRI system allows the flexibility of both simultaneous as well as standalone operation.

Simultaneous PET/MRI offers a major advantage to scientists from a wide variety of research fields including oncology, cardiology and neurology, enabling faster workflow without the need for operators to move subjects between lab instruments sometimes located in various locations within a research facility, or even an entirely separate research facility.

Moreover, it is the only integrated PET insert with performance documented in numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals including a full NEMA NU-4 evaluation.

Simultaneous PET/MRI reduces total experiment time while the internal structure of the magnet absorbs a substantial amount of the radiation. Additionally, the streamlined nature of the process means that unnecessary exposure to the radiation is considerably reduced, making this technique safer for researchers and lab technicians than lengthier sequential processes, such as CT/PET or sequential MRI/PET imaging.

Aspect Imaging CEO and founder Uri Rapoport said: “We’re thrilled to be able to provide the tools to deliver clear soft tissue imaging to effectively analyze MRI results.

“With our cost effective SimPET insert, high quality image resolution is now more accessible to the preclinical research community while simplifying the preclinical research phase.”

Brightonix Imaging founder Professor Jae Sung Lee said: “SimPET is an advanced silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) based PET insert for truly simultaneous PET/MR imaging, with a very compact design, low power consumption, and excellent PET detector stability.

“The excellent performance and stability of the novel, combined PET/MRI system is being well demonstrated in various ongoing rodent imaging studies performed in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at Seoul National University.”

Source: Company Press Release.