Ex Vivo Fluorescence Molecular Tomography of the Spine. (8th November 2012)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pimpalkhare, Monish; Chen, Jin; Venugopal, Vivek; Intes, Xavier
• Other Names: Cuccia David Academic Editor.
• Is Part Of: International journal of biomedical imaging. Volume 2012(2012)
• Publication Date: 2012-11-08
• Subjects: Diagnostic imaging -- Periodicals; Imaging systems in medicine -- Periodicals; Imagerie pour le diagnostic; Imagerie médicale; Diagnostic imaging; Imaging systems in medicine; Diagnostic Imaging -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 616.0754
• DOI: 10.1155/2012/942326
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1687-4188

Abstract

Abstract : We investigated the potential of fluorescence molecular tomography to image ex vivo samples collected from a large animal model, in this case, a dog spine. Wide-field time-gated fluorescence tomography was employed to assess the impact of multiview acquisition, data type, and intrinsic optical properties on the localization and quantification accuracy in imaging a fluorescent inclusion in the intervertebral disk. As expected, the TG data sets, when combining early and late gates, provide significantly better performances than the CW data sets in terms of localization and quantification. Moreover, the use of multiview imaging protocols led to more accurate localization. Additionally, the incorporation of the heterogeneous nature of the tissue in the model to compute the Jacobians led to improved imaging performances. This preliminary imaging study provides a proof of concept of the feasibility of quantitatively imaging complex ex vivo samples nondestructively and with short acquisition times. This work is the first step towards employing optical molecular imaging of the spine to detect and characterize disc degeneration based on targeted fluorescent probes.