Zootechnical Issues in Small Animal Imaging

This chapter is focused on animal handling during rodent imaging. Particularlyin studies of peripheral organs, the nutritional status of an animal may affectthe imaging results. Anesthetics can also have a strong impact on scan data,for example, in drug research or studies of the brain. Physiological parameterslike body temperature, heart rate, ventilation frequency, and oxygenation of theblood should always be carefully monitored and be kept close to their normalvalues or be standardized as much as possible when data from different animalsare compared. Most PET and SPECT studies have employed the intravenousroute for tracer administration. Several other routes are possible although theseare probably not as widely applicable. For many studies, the combination offunctional (PET, SPECT, fMRI) and anatomic (CT, US, MRI) imaging offerssignificant advantages, particularly if functional and anatomic data can beacquired simultaneously