POSITRON AUTORADIOGRAPHY FOR INTRAVASCULAR VULNERABLE PLAQUE IMAGING A Thesis

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I extend my thanks to my committee chair, Dr. Polad Shikhaliev, for all his advice and help in research and preparation of this thesis and to all of the members of my supervisory committee: for their assistance and taking time to serve on my supervisory committee. I also thank Shannon Fritz for her selfless help with every aspect of the research project. When it came to the project everyone was willing to think outside the box and provide suggestions to improve the outcome of the project, while maintain a positive attitude. Finally, I thank the staff at LSU and Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center for all their help. 1: Artery plaque with inflamed endothelial layer (top). Rupture of endothelial level and detachment of plaque from the wall of the artery (bottom). 2: Transport and metabolic pathways for glucose and 2-deoxy-2[ 18 F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG). Physically, the " free " compartment represents a combination of the interstitial space and the cytosol in both of which unphosphorylated glucose and FDG are uniformly distributed [8].. 10: Fraction of the artery cross section blocked by storage phosphor tip versus gap between phosphor tip and artery wall, for 1 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm and 4 mm diameter arteries. Vertical marker was drawn at 0.6 mm, which is the average range of the 18 F positrons in blood. It is preferable to keep the gap between phosphor tip and artery wall smaller than 0.6 mm, otherwise most of the positrons emitted from the plaques will be absorbed in the blood and will not reach the phosphor tip. 24: The entrance skin exposure is a function of kVp for different patient thicknesses. As the kVp increases, the entrance skin exposure at all patient thicknesses is reduced. Thick patients imaged at low kV suffer the highest entrance skin exposures. Entrance skin exposure values above 10 R/min are restricted by regulations (gray zone) and the fluoroscopic system has safeguards to prohibit these exposure rates. 25: Laser light diffuser inserted inside of the storage phosphor tip. Image taken of identical setup with room lights on and laser light off (left) and with room lights off and laser light on 28: Schematic of storage phosphor readout system. Phosphor tip wrapped around the drum of the readout system. The drum rotates as the optical laser scans the surface of the storage 31: Components of storage phosphor detector assembly: (a) phosphor …