Performance Evaluation and Compatibility Studies of a Compact Preclinical Scanner for Simultaneous PET/MR Imaging at 7 Tesla

We present the design and performance of a new compact preclinical system combining positron emission tomography (PET) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for simultaneous scans. The PET contains sixteen SiPM-based detector heads arranged in two octagons covers an axial field view (FOV) 102.5 mm. Depth interaction effects detector's temperature variations are compensated by system. is integrated dry magnet operating at 7 T. MRI characteristics were assessed complying with international standards interferences between both subsystems during scans addressed. For rat size phantom, peak noise equivalent count rates (NECR) 96.4 kcps 30.2 MBq 132.3 28.4 respectively without RF coil. mouse, NECR was 300.0 34.5 426.9 34.3 At centre FOV, spatial resolutions expressed as full width half maximum / tenth (FWHM/FWTM) ranged from 1.69/3.19 mm to 2.39/4.87 absolute sensitivity obtained 250-750 keV energy window 7.5% coil 7.9% Spill over ratios NEMA NU4-2008 image quality (NEMA-IQ) phantom 0.25 0.96 percentage non-uniformity 5.7%. versus activity linear up 40 MBq. principal variation 0.03 ppm/mm qualitative quantitative aspects data preserved