Preclinical cardiac imaging package for clinical SPECT systems

描述(由申请人提供)：宾夕法尼亚大学(Penn)和布里格姆妇女医院(BWH)提出的这项生物工程研究伙伴计划的长期目标是开发一种用于临床前心脏成像的优化准直系统，该系统提供比商业可获得的临床前系统更高的性能，成本仅为独立商业系统价格的一小部分~我们估计成本约为97K美元(~15%)。我们将为临床三头扫描仪开发一个完整的临床前转换包，用户可能已经拥有，或者可以从我们的公司合作伙伴那里以每年约4万美元的价格租赁，包括维护成本。这一成本低于商业上可获得的独立临床前扫描仪的单独维护成本，甚至不考虑机器的购买或租赁价格。拟建的准直器管将采用快速成型技术由钨聚合物制成。 和铸造技术-该管的初始版本将包含大量(~150-200)非常高密度的铂-铱合金针孔插件，用于临床前心脏成像，并将由两个部分组成：(I)高分辨率部分，提供0.5 mm或更好的重建分辨率，在适合心脏成像的视场(FOV)上灵敏度约0.5%，(Ii)具有较大视野但分辨率较低的侦察成像部分。通过机器人轴向平移管子，可以快速改变管子的截面。这一组合不仅将为心脏的准确定位提供侦察图像，而且还将获得有关心脏周围活动分布的信息，如果仅使用高分辨率部分，这些信息将被截断。未来版本的显像管可能会包含额外的部分，以允许进行多阶段成像。这一提议的关键概念之一是使用方形孔径插件来提供多个针孔的有效投影平铺，以及在相同分辨率下比圆形孔径具有更高的灵敏度。由于快速成型模具将用于管子制造，因此这些插件都将被定位和定向，以产生最佳的成像性能。定制的模体--专门为临床前心脏成像任务设计，也使用快速成型技术制造--将用于宾夕法尼亚大学和BWH大学的初步性能评估，以及与其他临床前成像系统的比较。新系统对推进心血管科学的效用，以及它们的全面功能，将通过与我们的多学科研究彻底展示 生物医学合作者~这些项目将为主要研究人员提供必要的反馈，以优化采集方案，同时还解决心血管科学中重要和及时的主题，涉及(I)Sestamibi和一种新型示踪剂在正常心肌中的灌注~(Ii)在缺血心肌中使用这两种示踪剂的灌注~(Iii)~脂肪酸代谢~(Iv)化疗诱导的心脏毒性~(V)单核细胞归巢至动脉粥样硬化~和(Vi)纳米颗粒和动脉粥样硬化中的钙化。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of this Bioengineering Research Partnership proposal from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is to develop an optimized collimation system for preclinical cardiac imaging that offers higher performance than that of commercially available preclinical systems at a cost that is a small fraction of the price of stand-alone commercial systems~ we estimate this cost at about $97k (~15%). We will develop a complete preclinical conversion package for clinical triple-head scanners that users may already have or that can be leased from our corporate partner for about $40k/year, including the cost of maintenance. This cost is less than the maintenance cost alone for commercially available stand-alone preclinical scanners, without even considering the purchase or lease price of the machines. The proposed collimator tube will be fabricated from tungsten-polymer using rapid-prototyping and casting techniques~ the initial version of this tube will contain a large number (~150-200) of very high-density platinum- iridium alloy pinhole inserts optimized for preclinical cardiac imaging and will consist of two sections: (i) a high- resolution section providing reconstructed resolution of 0.5 mm or better and a sensitivity of about 0.5% over a field of view (FOV) appropriate for cardiac imaging, and (ii) a scout-imaging section with a larger FOV, but more modest resolution. The sections can be rapidly changed by robotically translating the tube axially. This combination will not only provide a scout image for accurate positioning of the heart, but will also acquire information about the activity distribution surrounding the heart tha would otherwise be truncated if using the high-resolution section alone. Future versions of the tube may contain additional sections to allow multi-stage imaging. One of the key concepts of this proposal is the use of square-aperture inserts to provide efficient tiling of projections fro multiple pinholes, as well as higher sensitivity than that of circular apertures for the same resolution. Because rapid-prototyping molds will be used for tube fabrication, these inserts will all be positioned and oriented to yield optimal imaging performance. Customized phantoms -- designed specifically for preclinical cardiac imaging tasks and also fabricated using rapid-prototyping techniques -- will be used for initial performance evaluations at both Penn and BWH, as well as for comparisons with other preclinical imaging systems. The new systems' utility for advancing cardiovascular science, as well as their full range of functionalit, will then be thoroughly demonstrated through multidisciplinary research studies with our biomedical collaborators~ these projects will provide essential feedback to the principal investigators for optimizing acquisition protocols, while also addressing important and timely topics in cardiovascular science, related to imaging of (i) perfusion with both sestamibi and a novel tracer in normal myocardium~ (ii) perfusion with both tracers in ischemic myocardium~ (iii)~ fatty-acid metabolism~ (iv) chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity~ (v) monocyte homing to atheroplaques~ and (vi) nanoparticles and calcifications in atherosclerosis.