Preclinical Imaging
The Preclinical Imaging Service (SIP) is a highly advanced facility which provides non-invasive, in vivo
imaging of the structure and function of body organs and tissues in preclinical animal models.
This equipment is located within the IMIBIC animal facility, which has modern facilities of approximately
800 m² and capacity for housing and experimental management of> 3,500 rodents, being in an ideal
location to provide interdisciplinary work in cardiovascular biology, oncology, neuroscience and physiology,
including another areas.
Personnel
Equipment and Facilities
- PET / RM 3T, which is the only combined magnetic resonance and PET equipment available nationwide,
integrates a PET equipment based on highly sensitive LYSO continuous crystal technology with 2 rings of
8 detectors that can obtain fields of view of 80 mm (transaxial) X 148 mm (axial), being able to go up
to 285 mm (axial) by moving the bed, silicon photomultipliers compatible with MRI, sensitivity of 5%
being able to reach 9% (NEMA norm) and sub-millimeter resolution (≤ 0.7 mm); MRI equipment is 3 Tesla
and 18 cm magnet with cryogen free technology, without the needing of a cooling line, with a magnet
homogeneity of ± 0.1 ppm (DSV 5 cm) and ± 0.05 ppm (DSV 3.5 cm), necessary to work with diffusion
sequences and localized spectroscopy with a system of gradients capable to provide 450 mT / m.
The PET / RM displays an automatic positioning system for the animal for both the PET and MRI
modalities and a touch screen with an integrated camera to facilitate positioning and monitoring.
- μCT (SkyScan 1176 model), which constitutes an X-ray tomography system (90 kV source) with a 3D spatial
resolution of less than 10 μm and a respiratory gating system for prospective or retrospective
extraction of respiratory movements during emission of the image. The system features a 12-bit,
11-megapixel refrigerated X-ray chamber with distortion corrected (4000x2670) with fiber optic coupling
for scintillator.
Rat and mouse whole body scanning capability: 68mm or 35mm scanning diameter and up to 200mm
longitudinal by multiple automatically connected scanners. This μCT equipment is capable of carrying out
longitudinal tests with a radiation exposure of less than 10mG, furthermore to image co-registration
with the PET or MRI system.
Services
- Advise on experimental design, selection of equipment and supervision of procedures.
- Advise during adquisition and procedure of imaging using MRI, microCT and PET.
- Specific applications:
MRI Applications:
- Structural analysis of soft tissue and body composition (compartmentalization).
- Analysis of structures by diffusion (diffusion weighted image).
- Analysis of metabolic composition by spectroscopy.
- Analysis of brain activity using fMRI.
MicroCT Applications:
- Structural analysis.
Aplicaciones del PET:
- Analysis of metabolic activity (normal and tumorous tissues).