Trimodal imaging and brain plasticity: MR diffusion tensor imaging supplements simultaneously acquired FET-PET and MP- RAGE of human brain tumour imaging

PET imaging is well established for the diagnosis of brain tumours. Its metabolic specificity delivers valuable information about the malignancy and the extent of tumour tissue. Tumour growth forces the brain to reorganize itself to compensate for the lost areas. It has been shown that DTI is a valuable tool to demonstrate the plasticity of the brain and it therefore offers information about the reorganization caused by tumour growth as well as surgical intervention [1, 2]. The acquisition of trimodal PET, MP-RAGE and DTI data on an MR-PET hybrid scanner, capable of simultaneous MR and PET, to investigate plasticity and reorganisation in human brain tumours is demonstrated. Introduction Positron emission tomography is a widely used and established tool for clinical tumour diagnosis. The method complements CT and MR imaging with respect to its metabolic specificity and helps to judge the malignancy and extent of the tumour tissue. The new technologies comprising MR-PET hybrid scanners have the advantage of measuring PET and MRI data that are intrinsically co-registered in time and space [3,4]. This reduces measurement time and greatly aids patient compliance. DTI is a valuable tool to demonstrate the plasticity of the brain offering insights into the reorganization brought about by tumour growth and / or surgical intervention [1, 2]. This study is the first to demonstrate the feasibility of trimodal imaging combining anatomical (MP-RAGE), structural (DTI), and metabolic-specific, functional information (FET-PET) for the investigation of brain tumours in humans.