MRI compatibility of position-sensitive photomultiplier depth-of-interaction PET detectors modules for in-line multimodality preclinical studies

This work addresses the feasibility of a small-animal, in-line PET/MR system based on Position-Sensitive Photo Multiplier Tubes (PS-PMTs). To this end, we measured the effects of static magnetic fields on the PS-PMTs performance in order to explore the minimal tandem separation between the PET and MR subsystems to preserve their respective performances. We concluded that it is possible to achieve minimal degradation of the PET scanner performance (after a system recalibration) if the magnetic field strength influencing the PET detectors is less than 1 mT and if it is oriented perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the tube. Therefore, we predict that it will be possible to maintain the PET image quality if it is placed outside the 1 mT line.