• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2009

Many types of small animal imaging modalities, like micro-CT, micro-PET, and micro-SPECT, have been recently developed worldwide. Small animal imaging systems are now recognized as indispensable tools to validate efficacy and safety of new drugs or new therapeutic methods using the animal disease models. With increasing demands for small animal imaging in biomedical research, multimodal small animal imaging systems, like micro-PET/CT or micro PET/MRI, are now also being developed. Small animal imaging with spatial resolution and sensitivity comparable to human imaging is quite challenging since laboratory small animals are much smaller than human beings. Research activities in Korea on small animal imaging systems are reviewed in this paper. In the field of micro-CT and micro-PET, many world-class technologies have been developed successfully in Korea. It is expected that the developed animal imaging system technologies can be used in the development of clinical imaging systems in Korea in the near future.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.95-101
• /
• 2007

Recently, small-animal imaging technology has been rapidly developed for longitudinal screening of laboratory animals such as mice and rats. One of newly developed imaging modalities for small animals is an x-ray micro-CT (computed tomography). We have developed two types of x-ray micro-CT systems for small animal imaging. Both systems use flat-panel x-ray detectors and micro-focus x-ray sources to obtain high spatial resolution of $10{\mu}m$. In spite of the relatively large field-of-view (FOV) of flat-panel detectors, the spatial resolution in the whole-body imaging of rats should be sacrificed down to the order of $100{\mu}m$ due to the limited number of x-ray detector pixels. Though the spatial resolution of cone-beam CTs can be improved by moving an object toward an x-ray source, the FOV should be reduced and the object size is also limited. To overcome the limitation of the object size and resolution, we introduce zoom-in micro-tomography for high-resolution imaging of a local region-of-interest (ROI) inside a large object. For zoom-in imaging, we use two kinds of projection data in combination, one from a full FOV scan of the whole object and the other from a limited FOV scan of the ROI. Both of our micro-CT systems have zoom-in micro-tomography capability. One of both is a micro-CT system with a fixed gantry mounted with an x-ray source and a detector. An imaged object is laid on a rotating table between a source and a detector. The other micro-CT system has a rotating gantry with a fixed object table, which makes whole scans without rotating an object. In this paper, we report the results of in vivo small animal study using the developed micro-CTs.

• 한국가시화정보학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2002.11a
• /
• pp.31-34
• /
• 2002

Imaging techniques using x-ray beam at high energies (>6KeV) such as contact radiography, projection microscopy, and tomography have been used to nondestructively discern internal structure of objects in material science, biology, and medicine. This paper introduces the x-ray micro-imaging method using 1B2 micro-probe line of PAL (Pohang Accelerator Laboratory). Cross-sectional information on low electron density materials can be obtained by probing a sample with coherent synchrotron x-ray beam in an in-line holography setup. Living organism such as plants, insects are practically transparent to high energy x-rays and create phase shift images of x-ray wave front. X-ray micro-images of micro-bubbles of $20\~120\;{\mu}m$ diameter in an opaque tube were recorded. Clear phase contrast images were obtained at Interfaces between bubbles and surrounding liquid due to different decrements of refractive index.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.659-664
• /
• 2004

It is important to measure precisely the size and velocity of micro-bubbles used in various field. The synchrotron X-ray micro-imaging technique was employed to measure the size and velocity of micro-bubbles moving in an opaque tube simultaneously. Phase contrast images were obtained at interfaces of micro-bubbles between water and air due to their different refractive indices. The X-ray micro-imaging technique was found to measure an optical fiber with an accuracy of 0.2%. Micro-bubbles of 20∼60$\mu\textrm{m}$ diameter moving upward in an opaque tube (${\Phi}$＝2.7mm) were tested to measure bubble size and up-rising velocity. For DI water, the measured velocity of micro-bubbles is nearly proportional to the square of bubble size, agreed well with the theoretical result. In addition, the synchrotron X-ray micro-imaging technique can measure accurately the size and velocity of several overlapped micro-bubbles.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2004.04a
• /
• pp.1744-1748
• /
• 2004

It is important to measure precisely the size and velocity of micro-bubbles used in various field. The synchrotron X-ray micro-imaging technique was employed to measure the size and velocity of micro-bubbles moving in an opaque tube simultaneously. Phase contrast images were obtained at interfaces of micro-bubbles between water and air due to their different refractive indices. The X-ray micro-imaging technique was found to measure an optical fiber with an accuracy of 0.2%. Micro-bubbles of $10{\sim}60{\mu}m$ diameter moving upward in an opaque tube (${\phi}=2.7mm$) were tested to measure bubble size and up-rising velocity. For DI water, the measured velocity of micro-bubbles is nearly proportional to the square of bubble size, agreed well with the theoretical result. In addition, the synchrotron X-ray micro-imaging technique can measure accurately the size and velocity of several overlapped micro-bubbles.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2013

The process of drug discovery and development requires substantial resources and time. The drug industry has tried to reduce costs by conducting appropriate animal studies together with molecular biological and genetic analyses. Basic science research has been limited to in vitro studies of cellular processes and ex vivo tissue examination using suitable animal models of disease. However, in the past two decades new technologies have been developed that permit the imaging of live animals using radiotracer emission, X-rays, magnetic resonance signals, fluorescence, and bioluminescence. The main objective of this review is to provide an overview of small animal molecular imaging, with a focus on nuclear imaging (single photon emission computed tomography and positron emission tomography). These technologies permit visualization of toxicodynamics as well as toxicity to specific organs by directly monitoring drug accumulation and assessing physiological and/or molecular alterations. Nuclear imaging technology has great potential for improving the efficiency of the drug development process.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.97-102
• /
• 2004

We developed an x-ray cone-beam micro computed tomography (micro-CT) system for small-animal imaging. The micro-CT system consists of a 2-D flat-panel x-ray detector with a field-of-view (FOV) of 120${\times}$120 mm2, a micro-focus x-ray source, a scan controller and a parallel image reconstruction system. Imaging performances of the micro-CT system have been evaluated in terms of contrast and spatial resolution. The minimum resolvable contrast has been found to be less than 36 CT numbers at the dose of 95 mGy and the spatial resolution about 14 lp/mm. As small animal imaging results, we present high resolution 3-D images of rat organs including a femur, a heart and vessels. We expected that the developed micro-CT system can be greatly used in biomedical studies using small animals.

• 한국가시화정보학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2003.11a
• /
• pp.45-46
• /
• 2003

The x-ray micro-imaging technique was employed to measure the size and velocity of micro-bubbles moving in an opaque tube simultaneously. Phase contrast images were obtained at interfaces of micro-bubbles between water and air due to different refractive index. Micro-bubbles of $20\~120{\mu}m$ diameter moving upward in an opaque tube $(\phi=2.7mm)$ were tested. For two different working fluids of tap water and DI water, the measured velocity of micro-bubbles is roughly proportional to the square of bubble size.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.199-208
• /
• 2020

Purpose: This study was performed to introduce an in vivo hybrid multimodality technique involving the coregistration of micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI) to concomitantly visualize and quantify mineralization and vascularization at follow-up in a rat model. Materials and Methods: Three adult female rats were randomly assigned as test subjects, with 1 rat serving as a control subject. For 20 weeks, the test rats received a weekly intravenous injection of 30 ㎍/kg zoledronic acid, and the control rat was administered a similar dose of normal saline. Bilateral extraction of the lower first and second molars was performed after 10 weeks. All rats were scanned once every 4 weeks with both micro-CT and HR-MRI. Micro-CT and HR-MRI images were registered and fused in the same 3-dimensional region to quantify blood flow velocity and trabecular bone thickness at T0 (baseline), T4 (4 weeks), T8 (8 weeks), T12 (12 weeks), T16 (16 weeks), and T20 (20 weeks). Histological assessment was the gold standard with which the findings were compared. Results: The histomorphometric images at T20 aligned with the HR-MRI findings, with both test and control rats demonstrating reduced trabecular bone vasculature and blood vessel density. The micro-CT findings were also consistent with the histomorphometric changes, which revealed that the test rats had thicker trabecular bone and smaller marrow spaces than the control rat. Conclusion: The combination of micro-CT and HR-MRI may be considered a powerful non-invasive novel technique for the longitudinal quantification of localized mineralization and vascularization.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.102-107
• /
• 2007

In molecular imaging studies via magnetic resonance imaging, in vivo cell tracking is an important issue for the observation of cell therapy or disease behavior. High resolution imaging and longitudinal study are necessary to track the cell movement. Since the field inhomogeneity extends over several voxels, we have performed the numerical analysis using the sub-voxel method dividing a voxel of MR image into several elements and the information about the field inhomogeneity distribution around the micro-beads. We imbedded ferrite-composite micro-beads with the size of $20-150{\mu}m$ in the subject substituted for cells to induce local field distortion. In the phantom imaging with the isotropic voxel size of $200{\mu}m^3$, we could confirm the feasibility of sub-voxel tracking in a 3.0 T MRI.