Author :
Purschke, M.L. ; Kandasamy, A. ; Kriplani, A. ; Lecomte, R. ; O´Connor, P. ; Pratte, J.-F. ; Radeka, V. ; Schlyer, D. ; Southekal, S. ; Stoll, S. ; Vaska, P. ; Villanueva, A. ; Woody, C.L. ; Junnakar, S. ; Krishnamoorthy, S. ; Shokouhi, S. ; Fontaine, R.
Abstract :
The RatCAP is a small, head mounted PET tomograph designed and built to image the brain of an awake rat. It allows PET imaging studies to be carried out on laboratory rats without the use of anesthesia, which severely suppresses brain functions and affects many of the neurological activities that one would like to study using PET. The tomograph consists of a 4 cm diameter ring containing 12 block detectors, each of which is comprised of a 4 times 8 array of 2.2 times 2.2 times 5 mm3 LSO crystals read out with a matching APD array. The APDs are read out using a custom designed ASIC and VME readout system. We have successfully performed a system integration test with a partially instrumented tomograph ring. We present the recent progress towards a fully integrated system
Keywords :
brain; helmet mounted displays; medical image processing; positron emission tomography; zoology; APD array; LSO crystal; PET imaging; PET tomography; RatCAP; VERSA module Eurocard; VME readout system; application specific integrated circuit; avalanche photodiode; brain function; brain image; laboratory rat; liquid scintillatioin; neurological activity; positron emission tomography; tomograph ring; Anesthesia; Animals; Application specific integrated circuits; Crystals; Detectors; Head; Laboratories; Positron emission tomography; Rats; Sensor arrays;
