Development and evaluation of a MicroCT system for small animal imaging

Abstract

An X-ray MicroCT system with high spatial resolution for imaging of small animals has been developed and characterized. In the future, this system will be combined with a high resolution SPECT system under development and will also serve as a source of data for the evaluation and development of 3D volume CT reconstruction algorithms. This system is comprised of an X-ray source, phosphor-CCD detector and motor-driven positioning stages. The major components of this system, the geometric calibration, the time response of the X-ray power supply and the measured contrast resolution are discussed. Finally, we present images of a mouse.