Performance evaluation of a mouse-sized camera for dynamic studies in small animals

A mouse sized camera has been built in terms of collaboration between the presenting institutions. The system is used for the performance of dynamic studies in small animals, in order to evaluate novel radiopharmaceuticals. The active area of the detector is approximately 48x96 mm allowing depiction of the entire mouse in a single view. The system is based on two flat-panel Hamamatsu H8500 position sensitive photomultiplier tubes (PSPMT), a pixellated NaI(Tl) scintillator and a copper?beryllium (CuBe) parallel-hole collimator. In this work, the evaluation results of the system are presented, using phantoms and small animals injected with conventional radiophrmaceuticals. Average resolution was ~1.6 mm on the collimator surface and increased to ~4.1 mm in 12 cm distance from the detector. The average energy resolution was measured and found to be ~15.6% for Tc{sup 99m}. Results from imaging thin capillaries demonstrated system's high resolution and sensitivity in activity variations was shown. Initial dynamic studies have been carried out in small animals injected with Tc{sup 99m}-DTPA and Tc{sup 99m}-MDP. The results show system's ability to perform kinetic imaging in small animals.