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.