The General Electric Healthcare (GE) SIGNA™ PET/MR scanner has been a core facility at the Charles E. Fipke Integrated Neuroimaging Suite in the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health since 2019. This 3.0T MR system offers a full suite of advanced MRI capabilities and is available for both MRI-only studies and combined PET/MRI protocols.
The PET component uses Time-of-Flight (TOF) technology and provides excellent quantitative accuracy and image quality. A full suite of pulse sequences and applications ensures advanced 3.0T MR imaging performance, including fMRI functionality.
2024 Upgrade
In 2024, the MRI component of the system underwent a major upgrade with the SIGNA PET-MR AIR system, featuring AIR Recon DL for deep learning–based image reconstruction. This next-generation platform delivers faster scan times and higher resolution images. The system includes MotionFree Brain, which corrects for head movement during static FDG PET brain scans. A notable addition is oZTEo bone imaging, providing detailed bone structure imaging without radiation exposure, seamlessly integrated with soft tissue imaging.
The platform also supports advanced MRI techniques such as myelin water imaging, task-based and resting-state fMRI, diffusion MRI, quantitative mapping, and MR spectroscopy.
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Core Scanner Features
- 3.0T MR system; full range of MRI-only studies at competitive rates
- Comprehensive MR imaging capability (structural, functional, and quantitative)
- Simultaneous PET/MR capability for perfectly co-registered datasets (optional)
- PET characterized RF coils
- 50cm MR field of view (FOV)
- 25cm Axial PET FOV
- 21.0 kcps/Mbq sensitivity
- <400 psec timing resolution
- TOF enhanced attenuation correction
- Full suite of pulse sequences and applications
- AIR Recon DL (added in 2024 upgrade)
- Motion Free Brain (added in 2024 upgrade)