Scientists at the Institute of High Energy Physics developed a micro Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT/CT) system with a high resolution imaging capability on small animals (bones,

The Micro SPECT/CT system

　 organs, etc.). This system provides a new tool for scientific research on nuclear medicine, pharmaceutics, biology, etc.

The micro SPECT/CT system is a dual-modality imaging device with the functions of both SPECT/CT and the image fusion. Different scan protocol can be chosen for the SPECT subsystem based on pinhole and parallel-hole collimations. The large area SPECT detector is composed of a NaI scintillation crystal array and four H8500 PS-PMTs, providing an excellent resolution rate.

Dedicated iterate reconstruction methods have been designed to improve spatial resolution and signal to noise ratio (SNR). Mutual information-based image registration and Alpha blending-based image fusion are applied to improve the accuracy of image interpretation. This R&D achievement will promote technology transfer.

On May 29, a review meeting was held at IHEP. Experts listened to the project report and witnessed an on-site test. The system has met all the designed specifications.