Masayuki Yamaguchi1, Hirofumi Fujii1, Kazumasa Inoue1, Ryutaro Nakagami1,2, Koutaro Tani1,2, Izumi Ogihara Umeda1, Yasuko Mutou1, Akira Nabetani3, Akira Hirayama1,3, Atsushi Nozaki3
1Functional Imaging Division, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan; 2Faculty of Health Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Arakawa, Tokyo, Japan; 3GE Yokogawa Medhical Systems, Ltd., Hino, Tokyo, Japan
A software-based post-processing technique in SPECT and MRI fusion was explored for small animal imaging. The latest animal SPECT scanner equipped with multi-pinhole collimators provides unique information about neuroreceptors in the brain and phagocytotic activity in sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) of mice. We obtained 123I IMZ or 99mTc SPCET and high-resolution MRI for the mouse brain and SLN, respectively, using separate scanners with a dedicated common animal bed and external references, and successfully co-registered these images using post-processing software. This technique may aid in the simultaneous evaluation of functional and anatomical aspects of small animal organs in vivo.