Development of a 4-D digital mouse phantom for molecular imaging research.

PURPOSE We develop a realistic and flexible 4-D digital mouse phantom and investigate its usefulness in molecular imaging research. METHODS Organ shapes were modeled with non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) surfaces based on high-resolution 3-D magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) data. Cardiac and respiratory motions were modeled based on gated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data obtained from normal mice. Pilot simulation studies in single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) were performed to demonstrate the utility of the phantom. RESULTS NURBS are an efficient and flexible way to accurately model the anatomy and cardiac and respiratory motions for a realistic 4-D digital mouse phantom. The phantom is capable of producing realistic molecular imaging data from which imaging devices and techniques can be evaluated. CONCLUSION The phantom provides a unique and useful tool in molecular imaging research. It can be used in the development of new imaging instrumentation, image acquisition strategies, and image processing and reconstruction methods.