A Technical Validation of The PET/SPECT/CT (Triumph) Scanner

Abstract: Positron Emission Tomography (PET) plays a very important role in the field of drugdevelopment already in the preclinical phase. This is done by using positron labeled molecules for different approaches/methodologies such as cell analysis, frozen section autoradiography, homogenate binding, organ distribution and at the end in vivo small-animal PET imaging. The technique is also used for integrated animal studies in which both functional information from PET or Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPECT) and structural information from Computed Tomography (CT) are integrated. However, significant improvements in technical aspects of the animal scanner such as resolution (under 1 mm), high sensitivity and ease of the operational procedures have affected the usage of these types of imaging. This study aims to test the technical and operational performance of the FLEX Triumph preclinical PET/SPECT/CT imaging system. Spatial resolution, sensitivity and partial volume effects have been the parameters in focus but a performance comparison between different isotopes and an in vivo mouse study has also been performed. The results show that the Triumph is capable of producing high quality images for all modalities and also high quality PET/CT fusions.