Abstract
This study investigated the use of regulated cyclic breath-holds to improve microcomputed tomography (μCT) imaging of small (diameter, less than 1 mm) mouse lung tumors in vivo. Two novel techniques that use a modified small-animal ventilator were examined and compared with a previously used respiratory gating μCT technique and a free-breathing μCT technique. Two mice were scanned with each of these 4 μCT techniques (voxel size, 92 μm). The appearance of small lung tumors (maximal diameter, 0.5 to 1.0 mm) and the characteristics of line profiles of the lung-diaphragm boundary were used to compare the images obtained from the 4 acquisition techniques. The use of cyclic breath-holds, synchronized with the CT exposures, led to marked improvement in the visualization of the mouse lung structure and lesion conspicuity. A secondary experiment was performed to assess the stress placed on mice by the acquisition techniques.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 46-56 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science |
Volume | 47 |
Issue number | 4 |
State | Published - Jul 2008 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Animal Science and Zoology
MD Anderson CCSG core facilities
- Small Animal Imaging Facility