University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK, recently hosted a UK first PET MR study day in conjunction with Siemens Healthcare. Delegates who attended the day course included radiologists, physicists, MR radiographers and MI radiographers. According to an event release, the knowledge session provided an introduction and overview of PET MR innovative technology, outlining its potential clinical and research applications.
Topics that were addressed were quantitation in PET MR and how it will help medical research and safety and governance issues. The potential applications of PET MR were also explored, including its use in psychiatry, dementia, neurology, tumour biology, pelvic and gastrointestinal cancers, lymphoma, head and neck cancers, vascular and cardiac procedures. Siemens Healthcare application and product specialists also attended to outline the key benefits of PET MR and detail features of the fully integrated MR and PET scanner, the BiographmMR.
The PET MR system from Siemens Healthcare was housed in the recently opened University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre .
“I was keen to learn more about the applications of PET MR. In a paediatric hospital MRI, with no use of ionising radiations and exquisite soft tissue anatomical definition, it is a very powerful investigative tool. Combining the functional aspects of MR and PET with the ability to significantly reduce the dose burden to the child is a very attractive proposition for paediatric imaging,” states Lorenzo Biassoni, consultant Paediatric Nuclear Medicine Physician at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, UK. “The discussions were all interesting, but I particularly enjoyed the speaker session on multiparametric profiling of tumour biology with PET MR. I would certainly recommend the study day and am considering attending again in the future.”
“PET MR, as demonstrated by the Biograph mMR, is a pioneering hybrid innovation that enables clinicians to rapidly gain in-depth information from simultaneous scans. It was a pleasure to support University College London Hospital, a first class clinical and research institution, to expand and develop understanding in this area,” commented Jane Kilkenny, MRI business manager at Siemens Healthcare. “The study day helped delegates expand their knowledge of this innovative technology, discover its wide variety of applications and discuss in a forum with peers.”
