introduction: image quality and accuracy of in vivo activity quantification in spect are affected by collimator penetration and scatter components, especially in high energy imaging. these phenomena highly depend on the collimator characteristic and photon energy. the presence of penetrated and scattered photons from collimator in spect images degrades spatial resolution, contrast and image qua...

The use of small animal imaging is increasing in biomedical research thanks to its ability to localize altered biochemical and physiological processes in the living animal and to follow these processes longitudinally and noninvasively. In contrast to human studies, however, imaging of small animals generally requires anesthesia, and anesthetic agents can have unintended effects on animal physio...