Low-cost, small-animal shelf for simultaneously assessing several small animals with a whole-body PET scanner.
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.
Buchert
R
R
Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. buchert@uke.uni-hamburg.de
de Wit
M
M
Raabe
A
A
Bohuslavizki
K H
KH
Schulte
U
U
Mester
J
J
Clausen
M
M
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*
D000180:Acrylic Resins; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D011143:Polyvinyl Chloride