Prototype Flat-Panel Based μCT System for Small Animal Studies

A prototype small-animal X-ray micro computed tomography (muCT) system has been developed to screen laboratory small animals such as conchs, mice and rats. The muCTsystem consists of a flat-panel X-ray detector with a field-of-view of 130 x 130 mm , a microfocus X-ray source, a rotational C-arm bracket, a subject holder and a parallel data processing system. When the magnification ratio is 2, the spatial resolution of the micro-CT system is about 8 Ip/mm (line pairs per millimetre), which is determined by the flat-panel resolving power. This prototype can take ex vivo and in vivo scanning. The sample is still while scanning, and the radiation dose is fairly low to retain the vitality of living animals. Convolution-backprojection formula is utilized to do the reconstruction, which is the dominating algorithm in spiral CT and muCT application. Results of some experimental specimens are presented.