Design of a multimodal fibers optic system for small animal optical imaging

Performance evaluation of the LightPath imaging system for intra-operative Cerenkov luminescence imaging

The performances of an intra-operative optical imaging system for Cerenkov luminescence imaging of resected tumor specimens were evaluated with phantom studies. The spatial resolution, the linearity of the measured signal with the activity concentration and the minimum detectable activity concentration were considered. A high linearity was observed over a broad range of activity concentration (R²⩾0.99 down to ∼40 kBq/ml of ¹⁸F-FDG). For ¹⁸F-FDG activity distributions 2 mm deep in biological tissue, the measured detection limit was 8 kBq/ml and a spatial resolution of 2.5 mm was obtained. The detection limit of the imaging system is comparable with clinical activity concentrations in tumor specimens, and the spatial resolution is compatible with clinical requirements.

Novel biomedical applications of Cerenkov radiation and radioluminescence imaging

The main goals of this review is to provide an up-to-date account of the different uses of Cerenkov radiation (CR) and radioluminescence imaging for pre-clinical small animal imaging. We will focus on new emerging applications such as the use of Cerenkov imaging for monitoring radionuclide and external radiotherapy in humans. Another novel application that will be described is the monitoring of radiochemical synthesis using microfluidic chips. Several pre-clinical aspects of CR will be discussed such as the development of 3D reconstruction methods for Cerenkov images and the use of CR as excitation source for nanoparticles or for endoscopic imaging. We will also include a discussion on radioluminescence imaging that is a more general method than Cerenkov imaging for the detection using optical methods of alpha and gamma emitters.