Combined Contrast-Enhanced MRI and Fluorescence Molecular Tomography for Breast Tumor Imaging; Annual summary rept. 15 Feb 2007-14 Feb 2008

摘要

A unique fluorescence molecular tomography system which couples fluorescence data acquisition into the bore of a clinical MRI to image the spatial distribution of fluorescence activity in tissue volumes has been developed and characterized. Signal-to-noise and system sensitivity to fluorophore concentration have been studied extensively. In homogeneous 70mm diameter cylindrical phantoms, the system shows a linear response to fluorophore concentration down to 1nM and is sensitive down to 10pM. Images in realistic phantoms simulating breast tissue reveal the importance of the complimentary MRI information, especially in cases where the tumor to normal tissue fluorophore uptake is less than perfect. Reconstructing images using tissue morphology information from simultaneously acquired MRI images recover tumor regions down to contrasts of 1.5 to 1 while images reconstructed without the MR information show no tumor specificity even at contrasts above 6 to 1.