In vivo animal SPECT imaging based on nonstandard HRT scan schemes

Positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) are key components in molecular imaging due to their functional imaging and high detection sensitivity. A small animal SPECT system was developed based on a fixed commercial animal PET scanner and a slit-slat collimator insert. In vivo animal imaging is possible with a class of non-conventional scanning schemes using a hybrid of limited-angle rotational and translational movements of the imaging object (HRT scheme). The sampling completeness and sampling uniformity were used to characterize the performance for varied positions of the imaging object using ten different HRT schemes which were combinations of 2 translational modes and 5 rotational modes. SPECT imaging studies were performed with simulated Monte Carlo data to evaluate these 10 schemes. Theoretical results and the Monte Carlo imaging results show no image quality loss when compared to a conventional rotation scan scheme.