Facilities and Equipment

The X-Ray Imaging Core is located on the first floor of the Opus Building and the second and ninth floors of the Alfred Building at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota.

Whole-body CT scanning

The computerized tomography (CT) scanning service of Mayo Clinic's X-Ray Imaging Core is located in the Opus Building on Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota. The imaging system is a commercial, whole-body Somatom Definition Flash dual-source CT scanner, manufactured by Siemens Healthineers USA. It is a leading technology CT system that is able to perform:

• 75 ms temporal resolution ECG-gated data acquisition.
• 0.4 mm isotropic voxel spatial resolution.
• Dual-energy CT.
• Reconstructions using image widths from 0.5 to 10 mm.
• Sequential, spiral and stationary table data acquisitions.

Micro-CT scanning

The micro-CT scanning service of the X-Ray Imaging Core is located in the Alfred Building on Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota. The X-Ray Imaging Core has access to five different micro-CT scanner systems that are used to provide imaging services appropriate to the needs of various research applications. These resources provide high-resolution, nondestructive 3D mapping of a sample's X-ray attenuation properties.

• MCT3 scanner. This custom-designed micro-CT scanner offers traditional X-ray imaging. The imaging involves measuring X-ray beam intensity changes due to the absorptive properties of the specimen. The X-ray source has four different anode options, including copper, molybdenum, silver and tungsten. Standard imaging applications use the tungsten anode with 60 kV tube potential. The X-ray detector is a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera with a terbium-doped fiber-optic plate and a cesium iodide scintillator. The system has a fixed geometry that offers an optical magnification of 1:1, effective pixel pitch of 24 µm and a 50 mm x 50 mm field of view.

• MCT4 scanner. This commercial scanner offers flexible geometric configurations and can support a wide range of custom applications, such as high-energy micro-CT and scatter experiments. The scanner is outfitted with a micro-focus X-ray source that has a tungsten anode. It provides three focus modes: focal spot size of 5 µm, 20 µm and 50 µm. It also provides a 40 to 150 kV range of operational voltages. The X-ray detector is a CMOS flat panel detector that offers a 15 cm x 12 cm active area, 95 µm pixel pitch, three-pixel binning modes and a frame rate of up to 30 FPS. Flexible positioning of the system hardware enables high-magnification applications yielding effective pixel sizes down to 5 µm.

• MCT6 scanner. This micro-CT scanner offers phase-contrast imaging in addition to traditional X-ray absorption imaging. A single acquisition can yield three contrasts: absorption, phase and dark field. Absorption is sensitive to high-density materials such as bone. Phase is sensitive to low-density materials such as soft tissue. And dark field is sensitive to scatter caused by small structures and edges. Incorporating phase-contrast imaging capabilities enhances preclinical imaging applications by allowing for the extraction of complementary X-ray attenuation and phase information that derive from unique interactions in various tissues. The scanner is outfitted with a micro-focus X-ray source that provides three focus modes: focal spot size of 5 µm, 20 µm and 50 µm. The optimal voltage for the phase-contrast grating interferometers is 40 kVp. The system has a 4-megapixel CMOS X-ray detector that has a cesium iodide scintillator and a pixel pitch of 23 µm.

• Bruker SkyScan 1272. This commercial scanner offers a compact system design that enables high-resolution micro-CT imaging of in vitro and ex vivo specimens. The scanner is outfitted with a micro-focus X-ray source that provides a 20 to 100 kV range of operational voltages using a tungsten anode with an automatic filter changer. The X-ray detector is an 11-megapixel CCD detector with a fiber-optic-coupled scintillator and includes four-pixel binning modes. The system has adjustable magnification settings and can yield effective pixel sizes from 6.35 µm down to 0.45 µm with the single-pixel binning mode. The system can accommodate maximum specimen sizes of 75 mm in diameter and 70 mm in length. The scanner console includes installed vendor software that enables reconstruction, 2D-3D numerical analysis and 3D visualization.

• Bruker SkyScan 1276. This commercial scanner offers a compact system design with a rotating gantry to enable micro-CT imaging with high spatial and temporal resolution. These features accommodate a range of research applications, including ex vivo, in vitro and in vivo imaging scenarios. The scanner is outfitted with a micro-focus X-ray source that provides a 20 to 100 kV range of operational voltages using a tungsten anode with an automatic filter changer. The X-ray detector is an 11-megapixel CCD detector with a fiber-optic-coupled scintillator and includes four-pixel binning modes. The system has adjustable magnification settings and can yield effective pixel sizes from 10 µm down to 3 µm with the single-pixel binning mode. The system can accommodate maximum specimen sizes of 80 mm in diameter and 300 mm in length. The scanner console includes installed vendor software that enables reconstruction, 2D-3D numerical analysis and 3D visualization. Additionally, the scanner has an integrated physiological monitoring software for in vivo applications. An isoflurane anesthesia system is near the scanner for research procedure preparation.

Fluoroscopy

The mobile C-arm fluoroscopy service provided by the X-Ray Imaging Core is located in the Opus Building on Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota. The digital mobile Siemens Arcadis Avantic C-arm fluoroscope is used for portable fluoroscopy. The convenient location of the C-arm makes it available to support imaging needs for in vivo research procedures occurring in the nearby preparation lab, surgery suite and CT room.

The biplane fluoroscopy service of the X-Ray Imaging Core is located in the Alfred Building on Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota. Two Siemens Artis zee biplane fluoroscopes are available for use and are located in adjacent rooms. These imaging systems are routinely used to support in vivo research procedures involving interventional use and fluoroscopic guidance. Common examples include catheter insertion, balloon dilation, and injection of contrast, drugs or stem cells.