Design and Realization of Multiple-Wavelength Contact NIR Transmission Scanner

We plan to combine the tilted-collimator (TC) technique enabling a precise three-dimensional determination of the object position using a high-resolution gamma-ray camera with other imaging technique such as near-infrared (NIR) scanning. The advantage of such a combination would facilitate the application of multimodality imaging to small-sized biological objects. In this aspect a combination of NIR scanning and gamma-ray imaging using a TC-YAP camera could be a useful approach for in-vivo studies of the biodistribution of radiopharmaceuticals, for tumor localization in small animals, etc. A multiple-wavelength NIR scanning device has already been accomplished in the Laboratory for Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Imaging (LRIM, the former PET Laboratory) at the National Laboratories of Legnaro, INFN. It has been designed for near-object scanning of the NIR light transmitted through the scanned object that is emitted by a set of ? ve light emitting diodes (LED) with different wavelengths. The process of scanning is realized by a consecutive positioning of an array of NIR detectors (sliding very close to the scanned object) in steps and reading the detector signals at the corresponding positions. Thus, after scanning a set of ? ve images is obtained. The latter allows conducting a multivariate image analysis (MIA) in order to observe small differences in the optical properties of the objects analyzed. In this article we present some preliminary results from the test measurements conducted with this scanner.