PET/MRI
MIC's small animal PET/MR scanner (MR Solutions Ltd) was installed April 2021 and funded through the NRC NORMOLIM infrastructure grant. It is suitable for imaging live rats and mice or ex vivo material of a similar size, such as organs, fish etc.
Bilde
Further information
The system consists of a 7T MR scanner and a 3 ring (15 cm axial field of view) PET scanner and can perform MRI alone or sequential PET and MR imaging. MIC can support you in all parts of the project including planning, training, scanning, image post-processing and analysis.
MR imaging techniques
Generally, MRI provides good soft tissue contrast.
- Anatomical imaging such as standard T1 and T2 weighted images.
- Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI): used to investigate changes in diffusion or apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), e.g. to provide information about cell density in a tumour.
- Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI): typically used to investigate fibre pathways in the brain (or spinal cord) where diffusion is highly directional. May for example be used to study deformation and integrity of white matter fibre tracts.
- Perfusion imaging (DCE): used to study the rate of blood flow through tissue or organs to provide information about pathology, metabolism etc. An example is to investigate the integrity of the blood-brain barrier.
- Relaxometry: monitor/map T1, T2 and T2* relaxation times to characterise tissue properties, e.g. to differentiate between normal and abnormal (cancerous) tissue.
- Angiography: time-of-flight measurements to visualise the vascular structure and to quantify blood flow in an area.
- Cardiac imaging.
- MR spectroscopy (PRESS, MEGA-PRESS etc): used for looking at the presence of various metabolites and whether they have been up- or downregulated.
PET imaging
See here for more information about PET imaging.
Technical details of the system
- System: Powerscan 7T PET/MR PET CLIP-ON 803.
- PET system: 150 mm axial and 80 mm transaxial field-of-view, up to 0.7 mm resolution.
- MR system: Magnetic field strength: 7T (297 MHZ for 1H).
- RF volume coils (inner diameter):
- mouse head (20 mm)
- mouse body (38 mm)
- mouse hotel for up to 3 mice (65 mm)
- rat head: (42 mm)
- rat body: (65 mm)
- RF surface coils for mouse head and rat head imaging.
- Gradient strength: 600 mT/m.
- Dedicated animal beds with built-in air heating.
- Life monitoring system for respiratory and temperature monitoring.