Citation:
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, vol. 57, n. 5, oct. 2010. Pp. 2524-2531
ISSN:
0018-9499
DOI:
10.1109/TNS.2010.2057516
Sponsor:
This work was supported in part by the CD-TEAM project, CENIT program, Spanish Ministerio de Industria and with grants from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Projects TEC2007-64731/TCM, TEC2008-06715-C02-01, SAF2009-08076, program ARTEMIS S2009/DPI-1802, Comunidad de Madrid, and the RECAVA-RETIC Network
We developed a cost-effective SPECT scanner prototype
(rSPECT) for in vivo imaging of rodents based on small-area
gamma cameras. Each detector consists of a position-sensitive photomultiplier
tube (PS-PMT) coupled to a 30 30 NaI(Tl) scintillator
array and We developed a cost-effective SPECT scanner prototype
(rSPECT) for in vivo imaging of rodents based on small-area
gamma cameras. Each detector consists of a position-sensitive photomultiplier
tube (PS-PMT) coupled to a 30 30 NaI(Tl) scintillator
array and electronics attached to the PS-PMT sockets for
adapting the detector signals to an in-house developed data acquisition
system. The detector components are enclosed in a leadshielded
case with a receptacle to insert the collimators. System
performance was assessed using for a high-resolution parallel-
hole collimator, and for a 0.75-mm pinhole collimator with a
60 aperture angle and a 42-mm collimator length. The energy resolution
is about 10.7% of the photopeak energy. The overall system
sensitivity is about
and planar spatial resolution
ranges from 2.4 mm at 1 cm source-to-collimator distance
to 4.1 mm at 4.5 cm with parallel-hole collimators. With pinhole
collimators planar spatial resolution ranges from 1.2 mm at 1 cm
source-to-collimator distance to 2.4 mm at 4.5 cm; sensitivity at
these distances ranges from 2.8 to
. Tomographic
hot-rod phantom images are presented together with
images of bone, myocardium and brain of living rodents to demonstrate
the feasibility of preclinical small-animal studies with the
rSPECT.[+][-]