X-ray CT system with phase-contrast and fluorescent techniques are being developed for biomedical researches. We
have applied these techniques for in-vivo and ex-vivo imaging. The phase-contrast x-ray CT enables to reveal the
detailed morphological information of cancer lesion, and image quality of ex-vivo specimen was excellent comparing to
4.74T micro-MRI. Fluorescent x-ray CT could depict the functional information with high spatial resolution, and its
image quality was almost the same as autoradiogram. Improvement of imaging system with much high-speed data
acquisition will enable to use these techniques for new biomedical researches.
We integrated fluorescent X-ray computed tomography (FXCT) and phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography (PCCT), and the feasibility of this fusion imaging was assessed for small animals. Brain tumor model of mouse and cardiomyopathic model of hamsters were examined. The brain and heart were extracted after intravenous injection of cerebral perfusion agent 127I-IMP and myocardial fatty acid metabolic agent 127I-BMIPP, respectively. Each target organ was fixed by formalin for FXCT and PCCT. Images were obtained three-dimensionally (3D), and the surface contour of brain and heart were determined from 3D-image after re-sampling for the description with the same spatial resolution. These images were fused interactively on displayed images by 3D image manipulation software. In FXCT, cerebral perfusion image with IMP and fatty acid metabolic image with BMIPP were clearly demonstrated at 0.5 mm and 0.2 mm spatial resolution, respectively. PCCT image with 0.03 mm spatial resolution depicted clearly the morphological structures of brain such as cerebral cortex, hippocampus, lateral ventricle and cerebellum, and for heart such as cardiac lumen, papillary muscle, left and right ventricle. On fusion image, localization and degree of abnormality of cerebral perfusion and myocardial fatty acid metabolism were easily recognized. Our results suggested that the integration of FXCT and PCCT is very useful to understand biological state corresponding to its anatomical localization even in small animal.
Micro-phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography with an X-ray interferometer (micro-phase-contrast CT) is in operation to obtain high spatial resolution images of less than 0.01 mm at the undulator beam-line 20XU of SPring-8, Japan, and we applied micro-phase-contrast CT to observe the organs of rats and hamsters. The excised kidney and spleen fixed by formalin were imaged. The fine inner-structures such as vessels, glomeruli of kidney and white and red pulps of spleen were visualized clearly about 0.01-mm spatial resolutions without using contrast agent or staining procedure. The results were very similar to those by optical microscopic images with 20-fold magnification. These results suggest that the micro-phase tomography might be a useful tool for various biomedical researches.
New synchrotron x-ray CT system with phase-contrast and fluorescent techniques are being developed for biomedical researches with the high-contrast and high-spatial resolution. We have applied these techniques for in-vivo and ex-vivo imaging. The phase-contrast x-ray CT (PCCT) was a highly sensitive imaging technique to depict the morphological information of the soft tissue in biological object, whereas fluorescent x-ray CT (FXCT) could depict the functional information concerning to specific heavy atomic number elements at very low content. Thus, the success of in-vivo imaging by PCCT and FXCT allows starting new approach to bio-imaging researches.
Fluorescent x-ray CT (FXCT) with synchrotron radiation (SR) is being developed to detect the very low concentration of specific elements. The endogenous iodine of the human thyroid and the non-radioactive iodine labeled BMIPP in myocardium were imaged by FXCT. FXCT system consists of a silicon (111) double crystal monochromator, an x-ray slit, a scanning table for object positioning, a fluorescent x-ray detector, and a transmission x-ray detector. Monochromatic x-ray with 37 keV energy was collimated into a pencil beam (from 1 mm to 0.025 mm). FXCT clearly imaged endogenous iodine of thyroid and iodine labeled BMIPP in myocardium, whereas transmission x-ray CT could not demonstrate iodine. The distribution of iodine was heterogeneous within thyroid cancer, and its concentration was lower than that of normal thyroid. Distribution of BMIPP in normal rat myocardium was almost homogeneous; however, reduced uptake was slightly shown in ischemic region. FXCT is a highly sensitive imaging modality to detect very low concentration of specific element and will be applied to reveal endogenous iodine distribution in thyroid and to use tracer study with various kinds of labeled material.
Autoradiography is a useful imaging technique to understand biological functions using tracers including radio isotopes (RI's). However, it is not easy to describe the distribution of different kinds of tracers simultaneously by conventional autoradiography using X-ray film or Imaging plate. Each tracer describes each corresponding biological function. Therefore, if we can simultaneously estimate distribution of different kinds of tracer materials, the multispectral autoradiography must be a quite powerful tool to better understand physiological mechanisms of organs. So we are developing a system using a solid state detector (SSD) with high energy- resolution. Here, we introduce an imaging technique with a coded aperture to get spatial and spectral information more efficiently. In this paper, the imaging principle is described, and its validity and fundamental property are discussed by both simulation and phantom experiments with RI's such as 201Tl, 99mTc, 67Ga, and 123I.
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