Volumetric microCT system for in vivo microscopy

Two of the major barriers to improved image quality in microCT are the reduced signal to noise imposed by the smaller voxels and the effects of physiologic motion. The most direct approach to increase the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is to increase the flux. This is not possible in most of laboratory and commercial microCT systems that are currently in use. We adopted a design that allows the use of high instantaneous X-ray flux combined with synchronization to physiologic motion. High quality imaging of moving organs such as the heart or the lungs is directly dependent on appropriate gating techniques. For this purpose, we acquired X-ray projections using a flexible controller to enable sophisticated biological pulse sequences to minimize the effects of motion. This paper reports on the development of a volumetric microCT scanner dedicated to structural and functional phenotyping of the live mouse.