T-SPECT: a novel imaging technique for small animal research

We present a novel imaging technique based on two orthogonal multi-pinhole detectors. In contrary to conventional SPECT systems, where the detectors are rotated around the object, the detectors are kept stationary in T-SPECT mode while the object is moved through their field of view. Therefore, this new imaging method is called translatory SPECT or T-SPECT. The advantage of this system is a simplification of the whole imaging system in the sense that only the light object has to be moved instead of the heavy weighted detectors. Two commercial gamma cameras are equipped with multi-pinhole collimators to achieve higher sensitivity. As the pinhole axes are tilted in axial and transaxial direction, the object is seen from slightly different directions, even without rotation.