Imaging method and imaging apparatus, in particular for small animal imaging
First Claim
1. An imaging method, for small animal imaging, which comprises:
- treating the object to be examined with an activatable optical contrast medium;
irradiating said treated object by a first optical excitation source;
detecting the first radiation reflected from the object by a first optical detector;
simultaneously irradiating by a second tomographic excitation source; and
detecting the second radiation transferred from the object by a second tomographic detector.
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Abstract
An imaging method and apparatus, for small animal imaging, in which the object to be examined is treated with an activatable optical contrast medium, which preferably has a metabolically activatable mark, and irradiated by a first optical excitation source. The first radiation reflected from the object is detected by a first optical detector, and simultaneously irradiated by a second tomographic excitation source, while the second radiation transferred from the object is detected by a second tomographic detector. In this case, the second tomographic excitation source advantageously generates an X-ray radiation, so that the resulting CT image can be superposed with the optical image in order to evaluate morphological and functional information.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. An imaging method, for small animal imaging, which comprises:
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treating the object to be examined with an activatable optical contrast medium;
irradiating said treated object by a first optical excitation source;
detecting the first radiation reflected from the object by a first optical detector;
simultaneously irradiating by a second tomographic excitation source; and
detecting the second radiation transferred from the object by a second tomographic detector. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An imaging apparatus, for small animal imaging comprising:
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a first optical excitation source, which irradiates an object to be examined which has been treated with an activatable optical contrast medium;
a first optical detector, which detects first radiation reflected from the object, a second tomographic excitation source which simultaneously irradiates the object to be examined; and
a second tomographic detector which detects the second radiation transferred from the object. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification