Development of a high-resolution and high efficiency Single Photon detector for studying cardiovascular diseases in mice

TL;DR

This paper presents the development and preliminary testing of a high-resolution, high-efficiency single photon detector system designed for in vivo cardiovascular imaging in mice, enabling better detection of plaques and perfusion assessment.

Contribution

It introduces an optimized detector system for small animal cardiovascular imaging and evaluates its feasibility for detecting plaques and assessing perfusion in mice.

Findings

Successful detection of atherosclerotic plaques in genetically modified mice.

Feasibility demonstrated for assessing left ventricular perfusion via intraperitoneal injection.

Prototype detector shows promise for in vivo small animal cardiovascular studies.

Abstract

SPECT systems using pinhole apertures permit radiolabeled molecular distributions to be imaged in vivo in small animals. Nevertheless studying cardiovascular diseases by means of small animal models is very challenging. Specifically, submillimeter spatial resolution, good energy resolution and high sensitivity are required. We designed what we consider the "optimal" radionuclide detector system for this task. It should allow studying both detection of unstable atherosclerotic plaques and monitoring the effect of therapies. Using mice is particularly challenging in situations that require several intravenous injections of radiotracers, possibly for week or even months, in chronically ill animals. Thus, alternative routes of delivering the radiotracer in tail vein should be investigated. In this study we have performed preliminary measurements of detection of atherosclerotic plaques in genetically modified mice with high-resolution prototype detector. We have also evaluated the feasibility of assessing left ventricular perfusion by intraperitoneal delivering of MIBI-Tc in healthy mice.