SPECT-CT system for small animal imaging

The Detector Group at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) and the Biology, Physics, and Applied Sciences Departments at the College of William and Mary are collaborating on the development of a miniature dual modality SPECT-CT system for mouse imaging. The detector heads of the SPECT sub-system are designed to be capable of imaging the gamma- and X-ray emissions (28-35 keV) of the radioactive isotope iodine-125 (I-125). Two different sets of I-125 imaging detectors are configured on a gantry that has an open-barrel type design. One set of detector heads is based on the 1-in square Hamamatsu R5900-M64 position sensitive photomultiplier tube coupled to crystal scintillator arrays. The other detector heads configured on the gantry are two 5-in diameter Hamamatsu R3292-based compact gamma cameras. The X-ray radiographic projections are obtained using a LIXI Inc. model LF-85-503-OS X-ray imaging system that has an active area of 5.5 cm in diameter. The open-barrel shaped gantry facilitates the positioning of various mini gamma-ray imaging detectors and the X-ray system. The data acquisition and gantry control is interfaced through a Macintosh G3 workstation. Preliminary SPECT reconstruction results using the R5900 based detector are presented.