A New Highly Versatile Multimodality Small Animal Imaging Platform

A new, highly versatile multi-modality small animal imaging platform, the Siemens Inveon Multimodality (MM) scanner, has been developed. This platform supports any combination of x-ray micro-CT, single-photon computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) modalities on a single gantry. Each modality within the system is designed to be configured with a different level of imaging performance based on the needs of the application. From a single control workstation, the end-user has the ability to tune the system configuration for each modality in terms of resolution, field-of-view (FOV), sensitivity, etc., as needed for the target application. The scanner platform is ergonomically designed to allow efficient access to the animal and employs a unique cable management device to allow more effective use of physiologic monitoring and anesthesia systems within a user-accessible x-ray shielded cabinet. The motivation for this versatile platform design is to accommodate a wide range of multi-modality imaging applications from mouse to small primate, each with performance parameters that can be tuned as driven by the target anatomy or biological process being studied within the animal.