Full member of GSISH

Contact Details

Department of Nuclear Medicine
Klinikum Rechts der Isar
TU München
Ismaninger Str. 22
81675 München
Germany

Phone: +49 (0)89.4140.4572

E-Mail: sebastian.fuerst@ph.tum.de

Project Details

Project:
Reducing Motion and Attenuation Artefacts in Hybrid MR-PET Imaging

Interdisciplinary Project Group:
Reducing Motion and Attenuation Artefacts in Hybrid MR-PET Imaging

Supervisors:
Prof. Dr. Sibylle Ziegler
Prof. Dr. Axel Haase

Start of PhD-work at GSISH:
September 2010

Project Description:
Similar to the already commercially available and for both the patient and the physician highly advantageous PET/CT scanners (positron emission tomography/computed tomography), MR-PET (magnetic resonance/positron emission tomography) is a multimodal medical imaging concept yielding functional information embedded in an anatomical view of the human body. <br/>Although the first studies give a positive outlook for the future, there is still a number of open issues in the context of combining MR and PET. Since a PET image requires several minutes to be acquired, it is the sum of information of several breathing and heart cycles. This motion of the inner structures in addition to external patient motion leads to image artefacts, making tumour volume definition as well as tracer uptake quantification of PET data inaccurate. Such artefacts could be corrected through MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) motion registration and the use of this information as an input for the PET reconstruction.
Although the PET detector ring will be integrated within the MR component, radiofrequency coils have to be placed in the field of view of the PET detector ring. These coils are devices that facilitate a higher MR image quality, but in this case lead to a lower PET image quality due to their position and the resulting attenuation of the gamma rays. The exact effects that the coils have on the PET component need to be studied and possible correction techniques be developed.

The above mentioned research and development on both topics will be done within the scope of this project.

Publications:

Journal Articles

Delso* G, Fürst* S, Jakoby BW, Ladebeck R, Ganter C, Nekolla SG, Schwaiger M, Ziegler SI. Performance Measurements of the Siemens mMR Integrated Whole-Body PET/MR Scanner. J. Nucl. Med. 2011;52:1914–22.

Fürst S, Pulko J, Hohberg M, Mann AB, Ziegler SI. Effects of temperature and bias voltage on the properties of a PET detector module based on the individual readout of 1 × 1 mm2 LYSO crystals by monolithic arrays of SiPMs. JINST. 2012;7:P08002.

Personal Details:

Education:
02.2008 - 02.2009:
Diploma Student at the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the Klinikum Rechts der Isar, TUM
Thesis Title: Development and Evaluation of Novel Detectors for Combined PET/MR Imaging

10.2002 - 05.2007:
TUM, Undergraduate and Graduate Studies in Physics
Core Subjects: Semiconductor Physics, Experimental Core and Particle Physics, Medical Physics

Employments:
03.2009 - 08.2010:
Research Assistant with the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the Klinikum Rechts der Isar, München

06.2007 - 11.2007:
Intern with Siemens Ltda., São Paulo, Brazil

12.2006 - 03.2007:
Lab student with the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the Klinikum rechts der Isar, München

02.2006 - 04.2006:
Intern with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria

08.2005 - 10.2005:
Intern with Siemens Medical Solutions, Forchheim

2004 - 2005:
Intern with the Physics Department of the Technische Universität München (4
Months)