Advanced radionuclide detection techniques for in vitro and in vivo animalimaging

This review of the different methodologies used for animal imaging with rad ioactive compounds presents the most recent approaches developed for both i n vitro and in vivo studies. The choice of a detector for analysis of the s patial distribution of radionuclides deposited in biological tissues result s in a trade-off between the size and nature of the region to study (in vit ro or in vivo), the required spatial resolution and the penetrating charact eristics of the ionizing radiation. Real time detectors are now available f or quantitative imaging of 2D or 3D radioactive samples and offer either an increased dynamic range or a lowered sensitivity in comparison with film r adioautography. For high resolution imaging, two specific techniques are pr oposed for applications to rodents. The usefulness of self-triggering inten sified charge coupled device (STIC) is illustrated for in vitro localizatio n in radiotoxicological studies of alpha -emitters. For in vivo techniques, the performance of positron emission tomography (PET) is discussed, as a p romising method of molecular imaging of biological processes.