Transmission imaging for validation of MR-based attenuation correction methods​

While transmission-based techniques are still considered the true gold standard for PET attenuation correction, traditional rotating transmission sources have not been integrated into the PET/MRI scanners due to obvious engineering challenges and the desire to reduce the radiation exposure. As such techniques would be valuable for improving and validating MR-based approaches, several stationary transmission sources have been suggested as alternatives.

In the case of scanners without time-of-flight capabilities (e.g. Biograph mMR), we showed that a single torus source filled with [¹⁸F]FDG allows the acquisition of highly accurate transmission images before radiotracer administration (Bowen et al 2016).