Abstract #3091

Precise Co-Registration of SPECT and MRI for Small Animal Imaging Using a Common Animal Bed with External References: A Feasibility Study

Masayuki Yamaguchi¹, Hirofumi Fujii¹, Kazumasa Inoue¹, Ryutaro Nakagami^1,2, Koutaro Tani^1,2, Izumi Ogihara Umeda¹, Yasuko Mutou¹, Akira Nabetani³, Akira Hirayama^1,3, 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.