First in vivo studies on rats with the YAPPET scanner

At Ferrara University the authors have built a dedicated 3-D PET scanner (YAPPET) with a very high spatial resolution and sensitivity as necessary for radiopharmaceutical studies on rats and mice. In collaboration with the Institute H.S. Raffaele in Milano the authors have performed both distribution and dynamical uptake studies of various radioactive tracers in rats. They have performed tomographic studies after injecting live rats with FDG and FESP labeled with /sup 18/F, with FE-CIT and Flumazenil labeled with /sup 11/C, and with /sup 18/F. The /sup 18/F-FDG, /sup 18/F-FESP and /sup 11/C-FE-CIT images show the different distribution of the various tracers in the rat brain. The /sup 18/F was injected for imaging the rat skeleton. In addition, the authors studied the uptake and washout curve of /sup 11/C Flumazenil in the rat brain from tomographic images.