Construction Details of an Autoradiographic-Based Rat Brain Phantom for Emission Tomography

A digital brain phantom was created from rat brain autoradiographic (AR) data for use in emission computed tomography studies. The animal tissue was radio-labeled with C]-2-deoxyglucose, a functional analog of the PET agent F]-fluoro-deoxyglucose. Following sacrifice of the animal, serial tissue sections were cut at 20#m thickness, digitized, and calibrated to represent the ground truth 2D relative spatial distribution of radionuclide within the tissue. A 3D representation was achieved by digital alignment of the serial AR images to corresponding video blockface images acquired at the time of cutting. In addition, a magnetic resonance data set was co-registered to the AR and blockface data using the AIR algorithm. This paper is concerned with outlining the details of construction for this phantom