Magnetic Resonance-Guided Positron Emission Tomography Image Reconstruction

The resolution of positron emission tomography (PET) images is limited by the physics of positron-electron annihilation and instrumentation for photon coincidence detection. Model-based methods that incorporate accurate physical and statistical models have produced significant improvements in reconstructed image quality when compared with filtered backprojection reconstruction methods. However, it has often been suggested that by incorporating anatomical information, the resolution and noise properties of PET images could be further improved, leading to better quantitation or lesion detection. With the recent development of combined MR-PET scanners, we can now collect intrinsically coregistered magnetic resonance images. It is therefore possible to routinely make use of anatomical information in PET reconstruction, provided appropriate methods are available. In this article, we review research efforts over the past 20 years to develop these methods. We discuss approaches based on the use of both Markov random field priors and joint information or entropy measures. The general framework for these methods is described, and their performance and longer-term potential and limitations are discussed.