An MR-Compatible Small Animal SPECT Based on Artifical Compound Eye Cameras

本项目旨在开发第二代MR兼容SPECT系统（MRC-SPECT- II）。所提出的MRC-SPECT-II系统，基于一种新型的倒置复眼（ICE）伽马相机 该设计将提供从几个方面显著改进SPECT成像仪器的潜力。 方面首先，这种方法有助于解决SPECT仪器最受限制的方面之一， 在不牺牲其分辨率能力的情况下提供显著提高的灵敏度。建议的管理资源中心─ SPECT-II系统可以提供前所未有的1.5%的灵敏度，重建成像分辨率为 0.5在1.2 mm空间分辨率下，9%（与 在现代临床前SPECT仪器中发现的0.1% - 0.01%的典型水平）。这大大增加了 在检测灵敏度可能会提供一个根本性的变化，我们如何利用SPECT成像， 通过提供显著降低的检测限并允许新的成像程序， 这对于当前一代的SPECT仪器是不可行的。第二，ICE相机 该设计允许MRC-SPECT-II系统具有显著减小的物理尺寸， 任何现有的具有类似FOV的SPECT系统。这将允许MRC-SPECT-II系统（以及未来的 MRC-SPECT系统（基于类似的ICE相机设计）将集成到大多数现有MR扫描仪中。 第三，ICE相机设计还可以为按比例放大的SPECT提供显著提高的灵敏度 用于大型动物和人类（例如大脑和心脏）成像应用的扫描仪。最后，建议 MRC-SPECT-II系统允许同时进行SPECT和高场（9.4T）MR成像研究。在这 在特定的项目中，MRC-SPECT-II系统将被开发和完善，用于体内研究疗效和 治疗工程神经干细胞在恶性脑肿瘤中的命运，这可能有助于使这一点 有前途的治疗方法进入临床实践。

This proposed project is for developing the second-generation MR-compatible SPECT system (MRC-SPECT- II). The proposed MRC-SPECT-II system, based on a novel inverted compound-eye (ICE) gamma camera design would offer the potential of dramatically improving SPECT imaging instrumentation from several aspects. First, this approach helps to tackle one of the most limiting aspects of SPECT instrumentation, by offering a dramatically improved sensitivity without sacrificing its resolution capability. The proposed MRC- SPECT-II system could offer an unprecedented sensitivity of 1.5% with a reconstructed imaging resolution of 0.5 mm across and 1.5 cm diameter field-of-view (FOV), and 9% at 1.2 mm spatial resolution (as compared to the typical levels of 0.1% - 0.01% found in modern pre-clinical SPECT instrumentations). This greatly increase in detection sensitivity could potentially provide a radical change in how we might employ SPECT imagining in pre-clinical research by offering a dramatically lowered detection limit and allowing for new imaging procedures that would not be feasible with the current generation of SPECT instrumentations. Second, the ICE-camera design allows the MRC-SPECT-II system to have a significantly reduced physical dimension, while compared to any existing SPECT systems with similar FOV. This would allow the MRC-SPECT-II system (and future MRC-SPECT systems based on similar ICE camera design) to be integrated in most of existing MR scanners. Third, the ICE camera design could also offer dramatically improved sensitivities for scaled-up SPECT scanners for large animals and for human (e.g. brain and heart) imaging applications. Finally, the proposed MRC-SPECT-II system allows for simultaneous SPECT and high-field (9.4T) MR imaging studies. Within this particular project, the MRC-SPECT-II system will be developed and refined for in vivo study of the efficacy and fate of therapeutically engineered neural stem cells in malignant brain tumors, which could help to bring this promising therapeutic approach into clinical practice.