Development of high-resolution ex vivo single-photon and positron emission tomography

Molecular imaging aims for the visualisation, characterisation, and quantification of biological processes in humans and other living systems at the molecular and cellular level. For today’s patient care, molecular imaging allows for (early) detection and characterisation of disease, efficient planning and assessment of treatments, and...

3D Tracking of Radioactive Particles in Small Animals

Fast and precise in vivo tracking of nanoparticles or single cells could provide better understanding of drug and stem cell delivery. Present SPECT with traditional collimators lack sensitivity to achieve sufficiently high frame rates. In this project a multi-slit SPECT system with stationary detectors was designed to track nanoparticles with a...

U-SPECT-BioFluo: An integrated radionuclide, bioluminescence, and fluorescence imaging platform

Background: In vivo bioluminescence, fluorescence, and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging provide complementary information about biological processes. However, to date these signatures are evaluated separately on individual preclinical systems. In this paper, we introduce a fully integrated bioluminescence-fluorescence...

Image acquisition and reconstruction in multi-pinhole emission tomography

Nowadays, tomographic imaging techniques are inseparable from modern medical practice as they allow non-invasive 3-dimensional visualization of the interior of a patient in order to e.g. establish a medical diagnosis, or to monitor disease progression and the effects of disease treatment. Next to clinical use, tomographic imaging techniques are...

Effects of attenuation map accuracy on attenuation-corrected micro-SPECT images

Background In single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), attenuation of photon flux in tissue affects quantitative accuracy of reconstructed images. Attenuation maps derived from X-ray computed tomography (CT) can be employed for attenuation correction. The attenuation coefficients as well as registration accuracy between SPECT and CT...

U-SPECT-II: An Ultra-High-Resolution Device for Molecular Small-Animal Imaging

We present a new rodent SPECT system (U-SPECT-II) that enables molecular imaging of murine organs down to resolutions of less than half a millimeter and high-resolution total-body imaging. Methods: The U-SPECT-II is based on a triangular stationary detector set-up, an XYZ stage that moves the animal during scanning, and interchangeable cylindric...