title: Design of a multimodal fibers optic system for small animal optical imaging.
abstract: Small animals optical imaging systems are widely used in pre-clinical research to image in vivo the bio-distribution of light emitting probes using fluorescence or bioluminescence modalities. In this work we presented a set of simulated results of a novel small animal optical imaging module based on a fibers optics matrix, coupled with a position sensitive detector, devoted to acquire bioluminescence and Cerenkov images. Simulations were performed using GEANT 4 code with the GAMOS architecture using the tissue optics plugin. Results showed that it is possible to image a 30 × 30 mm region of interest using a fiber optics array containing 100 optical fibers without compromising the quality of the reconstruction. The number of fibers necessary to cover an adequate portion of a small animal is thus quite modest. This design allows integrating the module with magnetic resonance (MR) in order to acquire optical and MR images at the same time. A detailed model of the mouse anatomy, obtained by segmentation of 3D MRI images, will improve the quality of optical 3D reconstruction.
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Department and Centre for Experimental Imaging, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Via Olgettina N. 60, 20132 Milan, Italy. Electronic address: spinelli.antonello@hsr.it.
authors.forename: Antonello E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Spinelli
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Department and Centre for Experimental Imaging, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Via Olgettina N. 60, 20132 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pagliazzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie 15, 37134 Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Boschi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004867:Equipment Design; D051379:Mice; D055100:Optical Fibers; D061848:Optical Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging
keywords: Magnetic resonance; Optics; Photonics; Small animal imaging