Authors: Hsin Wu Tseng, Srinivasan Vedantham, Sang Hyun Cho, Andrew Karellas
This research is aimed at improving the imaging of heavy element nanoparticle-based compounds in small animals or biological tissues. Such compounds typically incorporating small amounts of gold are being investigated by many laboratories around the world as cancer therapy agents. Their effectiveness and biodistribution is tested typically in preclinical trials using laboratory mice. Our laboratory in the Department of Medical Imaging at the University of Arizona College of Medicine has been collaborating with the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston TX, on the development of x-ray fluorescence computed tomography (XFCT) techniques for imaging these agents at high resolution. Our recent publication reports on the design of a component (collimator) of the high-resolution emission XFCT imaging system which is under development at MD Anderson along with image reconstruction. This collimator is a device that enables collection of the useful x-ray fluorescence signal from deep tissues to form 3D x-ray fluorescence images fused with x-ray CT images. The results of this publication provided useful insight on the design of the XFCT imaging device.
This research has been funded by NIH grant R01 EB020658, Dr. Sang Cho, MD Anderson Cancer Center with subaward to Dr. Andrew Karellas and Dr. Srinivasan Vedantham at UA. Dr. Hsin Wu Tseng is a co-investigator in this grant.
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