Coregistration of datasets from a micro-SPECT/CT and a preclinical 1.5 T MRI

An universal tool was designed for small animal SPECT/CT/MR coregistration. It was tested on a preclinical MRI (OPTImouse, RS2D, Bischwiller, France) and a micro-SPECT/CT (eXplore speCZT Vision 120, GE, Waukesha, USA), closed to each other, thanks to the short extension of the MRI magnet fringe field. The tool consists of a curved catheter describing many rigid loops, and fixed on a plastic sheet. During acquisitions, it is placed around the animal, in an isolated imaging cell, and filled with a solution containing iodine, copper sulfate and radioisotope. Multimodality imaging is achieved sequentially by moving the cell from one system to the other, in about 20 s. Acquisitions on phantom demonstrate the resolution accuracy of the coregistration process. Whole body trimodal SPECT/CT/MR acquisitions on live mice were coregistrated as well. A simple, cheap tool, easy to fill, could efficiently help for rigid coregistration of preclinical images, acquired on separate imaging apparatus.