Combined system of fluorescence diffuse optical tomography and microcomputed tomography for small animal imaging.
We developed a dual-modality system that combines fluorescence diffuse optical tomography (fDOT) and flat panel detector-based microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) to simultaneously reveal molecular and structural information in small animals. In fDOT, a 748 nm diode laser was used as an excitation source, while a cooled charge coupled device camera was adopted to collect transmission fluorescence. In micro-CT, a flat panel detector based on amorphous silicon, with active area of 13 x 13 cm(2), and a microfocus x-ray tube were used. The fDOT system was mounted orthogonally to the micro-CT and the projection images were acquired without rotation of the sample, which is different from the method used for micro-CT alone. Both the finite element method and the algebraic reconstruction technique were used to reconstruct images from the fDOT. Phantom data showed that the resolution of the fDOT system was about 3 mm at an imaging depth of 7 mm. Quantitative error was no more than 5% and imaging sensitivity for 1,1(')-dioctadecyl-3,3,3('),3(')-etramethylindotricarbocyanine iodide bis-oleate (DiR-BOA) was estimated to be higher than 100 nM at a depth of 7 mm. Calculations of the phantom's center of mass showed that the location accuracy of fDOT was about 0.7 mm. We applied a Feldkamp algorithm to reconstruct the micro-CT image. By measuring the presampled modulation transfer function with a 30 microm tungsten thread, we estimated that the micro-CT has a resolution of 5 mm(-1) when the field of view was 6.5 cm. Our results indicate the uniformity of the transaxial micro-CT image and the contrast-to-noise ratio was measured as 1.95 for a radiation dose of 1 cGy. A non-image-based method was employed for merging images from the two imaging modalities. A nude mouse with DiR-BOA, imaged ex vivo, was used to validate the feasibility of the dual-modality system.
Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, People's Republic of China.
Xiaoquan
X
Yang
Hui
H
Gong
Guotao
G
Quan
Yong
Y
Deng
Qingming
Q
Luo
D000818:Animals; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D051379:Mice; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000662:veterinary*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D041622:Tomography, Optical / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000662:veterinary*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000662:veterinary*