Study of skeletal muscle behavior by PET/MRI

Increasingly aging population is leading to higher prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and related muscular dysfunctions, requiring new types of functional investigations in daily clinical practice. Emerging non-invasive imaging techniques, such as hybrid PET/MRI, allow to visualize and to analyze the human body from the anatomical and metabolic point of view in a single scanning session. We aim to investigate both muscle anatomical behaviour by MRI and exercise-related changes in muscle functionality by PET/MRI and [¹¹C]Acetate, in view to develop a model of normal resting and exercised muscle. The static and dynamic PET and MRI acquisition protocols that we developed are described. Dedicated processing techniques are defined for the generation and visualization of 4D datasets, including both anatomical and metabolic acquired data. This paper reports the technical framework and methodological approach developed as a first step in our research. Experimental data are being collected and will be included in future validation studies.