Rodent brain imaging with SPECT/CT
- Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143 (United States)
We evaluated methods of imaging rat models of stroke in vivo using a single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) system dedicated to small animal imaging (X-SPECT{sup TM}, Gamma Medica-Ideas, Northridge, CA). An animal model of ischemic stroke was developed for in vivo SPECT/CT imaging using the middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) technique. The presence of cerebral ischemia was verified in ex vivo studies using triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining. In vivo radionuclide imaging of cerebral blood flow was performed in rats following MCAO using dynamic planar imaging of {sup 99m}Tc-exametazime with parallel hole collimation. This was followed immediately by in vivo radionuclide imaging of cerebral blood flow with {sup 99m}Tc-exametazime in the same animals using 1-mm pinhole SPECT. Correlated computed tomography imaging was performed to localize radiopharmaceutical uptake. The animals were allowed to recover and ex vivo autoradiography was performed with separate administration of {sup 99m}Tc-exametazime. Time activity curve of {sup 99m}Tc-exametazime showed that the radiopharmaceutical uptake could be maintained for over 9 min. The activity would be expected to be relatively stable for a much longer period, although the data were only obtained for 9 min. TTC staining revealed sizable infarcts by visual observation of inexistence of TTC stain in infracted tissues of MCAO rat brains. In vivo SPECT imaging showed cerebral blood flow deficit in the MCAO model, and the in vivo imaging result was confirmed with ex vivo autoradiography. We have demonstrated a capability of imaging regions of cerebral blood flow deficit in MCAO rat brains in vivo using a pinhole SPECT dedicated to small animal imaging.
- OSTI ID:
- 20951143
- Journal Information:
- Medical Physics, Vol. 34, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1118/1.2710950; (c) 2007 American Association of Physicists in Medicine; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-2405
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Technetium-99m-d, 1-HM-PAO: a new radiopharmaceutical for imaging regional brain perfusion using SPECT--a comparison with iodine-123 HIPDM
Pinhole SPECT: An approach to in vivo high resolution SPECT imaging in small laboratory animals