[18F]FDG brain PET-MR versus PET/CT in a clinical cohort: intra-subject quantitative comparisons
Abstract
There is limited evidence on the advantages of brain 2-deoxy-2-[ ¹⁸ F]fluoroglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) with simultaneous magnetic resonance imaging (PET-MR) over PET with computed tomography (PET/CT). We quantitatively compared brain FDG PET/CT and PET-MR images from a large clinical cohort. Participants with refractory epilepsy or cognitive problems underwent PET/CT at approximately 30 min post-injection, followed by PET-MR at approximately 100 min. Standardized uptake values (SUVs) were extracted in anatomical regions using a multi-atlas method, and voxel-wise comparisons were performed with statistical parametric mapping. Fifty-five image pairs passed quality control. Within-subject correlations between modalities were very high (0.96, range 0.84–0.99); within-region, across-participant correlations were 0.82 (0.72–0.90). PET-MR SUVs were on average 20% higher than PET/CT, more so for higher-uptake regions. Voxel-wise, PET-MR showed relatively higher uptake in visual and auditory cortices, lower uptake in medial frontal and anteromesial temporal cortices, and better grey-white matter contrast. We found a very close correspondence between the two modalities with their respective attenuation correction methods and sensory activation between scans; the different uptake times explain differences in absolute SUV levels and grey-white matter contrast. With awareness of these differences, brain PET-MR can be used clinically.
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BibTeX
@article{martinez202618ffdg,
title = {{[18F]FDG brain PET-MR versus PET/CT in a clinical cohort: intra-subject quantitative comparisons}},
author = {Arick Sagel Martinez and Anthime Flaus and Rolf A. Heckemann and Joel Dunn and Sufian Al-Ethawi and Sami Jeljeli and Colm J. McGinnity and Alexander Hammers},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41598-026-72030-y},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-72030-y},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - [18F]FDG brain PET-MR versus PET/CT in a clinical cohort: intra-subject quantitative comparisons
AU - Arick Sagel Martinez
AU - Anthime Flaus
AU - Rolf A. Heckemann
AU - Joel Dunn
AU - Sufian Al-Ethawi
AU - Sami Jeljeli
AU - Colm J. McGinnity
AU - Alexander Hammers
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/27
JO - Scientific Reports
DO - 10.1038/s41598-026-72030-y
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-72030-y
AB - There is limited evidence on the advantages of brain 2-deoxy-2-[ ¹⁸ F]fluoroglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) with simultaneous magnetic resonance imaging (PET-MR) over PET with computed tomography (PET/CT). We quantitatively compared brain FDG PET/CT and PET-MR images from a large clinical cohort. Participants with refractory epilepsy or cognitive problems underwent PET/CT at approximately 30 min post-injection, followed by PET-MR at approximately 100 min. Standardized uptake values (SUVs) were extracted in anatomical regions using a multi-atlas method, and voxel-wise comparisons were performed with statistical parametric mapping. Fifty-five image pairs passed quality control. Within-subject correlations between modalities were very high (0.96, range 0.84–0.99); within-region, across-participant correlations were 0.82 (0.72–0.90). PET-MR SUVs were on average 20% higher than PET/CT, more so for higher-uptake regions. Voxel-wise, PET-MR showed relatively higher uptake in visual and auditory cortices, lower uptake in medial frontal and anteromesial temporal cortices, and better grey-white matter contrast. We found a very close correspondence between the two modalities with their respective attenuation correction methods and sensory activation between scans; the different uptake times explain differences in absolute SUV levels and grey-white matter contrast. With awareness of these differences, brain PET-MR can be used clinically.
SN - 2045-2322
ER -