Development of a digital zebrafish phantom and its application to dedicated small-fish PET

Objective. We are developing a small-fish positron emission tomography (PET) scanner dedicated to small aquatic animals relevant for biomedical and biological research, e.g. zebrafish. We plan to use Monte Carlo simulations to optimize its configuration and the required water-filled imaging chambers. Our objectives were: (1) to create a digital 3D zebrafish phantom using conventional micro-CT, (2) include the phantom into a simulated PET environment based on the framework GATE, and (3) investigate the effects of the water environment on the reconstructed images. Approach. To create the phantom, we performed ex vivo measurements of zebrafish specimen using a tabletop micro-CT and compared three methods to fixate the specimen. From segmented micro-CT images we created digital emission and transmission phantoms which were incorporated in GATE via tessellated volumes. Two chamber sizes were considered. For reference, a simulation with the zebrafish in air was implemented. The simulated data were reconstructed using CASToR. For attenuation correction, we used the exact attenuation information or a uniform distribution (only water). Several realizations of each scenario were performed; the reconstructed images were quantitatively evaluated. Main results. Fixation in formalin led to the best soft-tissue contrast at the cost of some specimen deformation. After attenuation correction, no significant differences were found between the reconstructed images. The PET images reflected well the higher uptake simulated in the brain and heart, despite their small size and surrounding background activity; the swim bladder (no activity) was clearly identified. The simplified attenuation map, consisting only of water, slightly worsened the images. Significance. A conventional micro-CT can provide sufficient image quality to generate numerical phantoms of small fish without contrast media. Such phantoms are useful to evaluate in-silico small aquatic animal imaging concepts and develop imaging protocols. Our results support the feasibility of zebrafish PET with an aqueous environment.