MR -PET in Cardiology: An overview and selected cases

Since the turn of the millennium, PET/CT devices evolved as the fi rst generation of hybrid imaging systems integrating nuclear and radiological imaging from a valuable research tool into a clinically useful and accepted technique. These innovative devices combined morphological and metabolicfunctional information in an elegant way and reached widespread distribution. Therefore, it seemed quite obvious to develop a PET/MR system. However, the technical hurdles for this kind of integration were for physic’s reasons much higher – but were fi nally solved: for more than 2 years, integrated whole-body systems are now available and, in view of the success of PET/CT, the expectations are high that PET/MR provides an actual clinical benefi t. MRI’s advantage of an excellent soft tissue contrast and the capability of functional imaging at the molecular level by PET should have the potential to create a unique multimodality imaging. However, PET/MR in general and in cardiac imaging in particular needs to demonstrate its suitability in everyday clinical practice. In this review we give an overview of the requirements and features of this new hybrid imaging system and provide an outlook based on clinical examples, in which areas PET/MR could potentially fi nd a place in the armamentarium of cardiac imaging.