title: Low-cost, small-animal shelf for simultaneously assessing several small animals with a whole-body PET scanner.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this work was to establish a low-cost device for simple positioning of several small animals within a whole-body PET scanner.
  
  
  METHODS
  The device was designed as a stackable shelf for 3 x 3 animals, similar to a stackable shelf for wine bottles. It was constructed from ordinary PVC drain pipe and acrylic panes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The shelf simplified accurate and reproducible positioning of the animals and, therefore, supported automatic data processing. Deterioration of image quality by attenuation of photons within the shelf itself was rather small.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The small-animal shelf is a useful, low-cost device for simultaneously assessing up to 9 small animals with a whole-body PET scanner.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. buchert@uke.uni-hamburg.de
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Buchert
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Wit
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raabe
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Bohuslavizki
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schulte
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mester
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Clausen
mesh_terms: D000180:Acrylic Resins; D000818:Animals; D004780:Environment, Controlled; D004867:Equipment Design; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006799:Housing, Animal / Q000191:economics; D007089:Image Enhancement; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D011143:Polyvinyl Chloride; D011187:Posture; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D051381:Rats; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D000180:Acrylic Resins; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D011143:Polyvinyl Chloride