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Defense Date

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Biomedical Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Joseph D. Kalen

Second Advisor

Dr. Ding Yu-Fei

Abstract

To improve efficacy in the field of drug discovery simpler in vivo, non invasive methods such as PET and SPECT are used. Pharmacokinetic analysis is the underlying method for analyzing the PET data. Imaging of tracer distribution is used to study a metabolic process. Using Matlab as the programming language, a software tool is developed to analyze the quantitative information from PET and to obtain an estimate of pharmacokinetic parameters, representing the bio- distribution of the radiotracer. A Graphical User Interface developed allows two types of analysis, depending upon the nature of the radiotracer: Compartmental Modeling and Logan Plot Analysis. Compartmental analysis gives us rate constants and blood volume where as Logan analysis gives us the distribution volume as the parameter of interest. Code validation is done for two radiotracers, 15O-water (Single compartment model) and FPAC (Logan Plot). Results from the code were compared with those obtained during a research work done to study MDR.

Comments

Part of Retrospective ETD Collection, restricted to VCU only.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

June 2008

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