The Preclinical Imaging Core Facility has a state-of-the-art Siemens Inveon PET/SPECT/CT multimodality system for laboratory animal studies.
Our PET-scanner presents a FOV at 10 cm x 12.7 cm, and consists of high light output LSO crystals with 1.4 mm FWHM spatial resolution and a high sensitivity. The SPECT-scanner consists of two gamma camera detectors build of pixilated sodium iodine crystals, with a selection of different dedicated pinhole collimators for dedicated mouse and rat studies. FOV depends on collimator choice and can provide spatial resolution down to sub-millimeter in reconstructed images. The cone-beam CT camera includes a Field Of View (FOV) at 8.4 cm x 5.5 cm and a maximum spatial resolution of ~50 microns.
The system integrates each modality into a common data acquisition system for automatic transition between modes and seamless coordination of CT and PET or SPECT data acquisition. A dedicated image analysis computer with specialized software (Pmod / FSL / SPM) ensures easy segmentation, analysis, and pharmacokinetic calculations.
The scanner includes equipment for rodent isoflurane anesthesia and physiological monitoring (sensor for ECG, respiration, and temperature) besides a heated animal bed, to ensure optimal animal welfare during scans, and is located next to the animal facility.