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KMID : 0368120080380090462
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Korean Circulation Journal
2008 Volume.38 No. 9 p.462 ~ p.467
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Synchrotron Microangiography of the Rat Heart Using the Langendorff Model
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Kim Woong-Han
Choi Se-Hoon
Kwak Jae-Gun
Kim Dong-Jin
Oh Se-Jin
Kim Dong-Jung
Jang Woo-Sung
Lee Jae-Hang
Choi Eun-Suk
Kim Young-Jun
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Abstract
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Background and Objectives: The ability to study microvessels of a beating heart in real time at the level of the capillary is essential for research. However, there are no proven methods currently available to achieve this. The conventional absorption-contrast agents have limitations for studying capillaries. Microangiography with using synchrotron phase-contrast X-ray technology and no contrast agent has recently been reported on. We tried to verify this previous report, and we wanted to visualize the microvessels of a rat heart using air as a contrast agent.
Materials and Methods: We made the Langendorff apparatus in a hutch of the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory. The images were obtained with a white beam and a monochromatic beam. The visual images were magnified using 3× and 20× optical microscope lenses, and the images were captured with a charge-coupled device camera.
Results: We could not duplicate the previously reported findings in which microvessels were visualized without the use of contrast agent. But with using air as a contrast agent, the microvasculature of rat hearts was clearly identified at a spatial resolution of 1.2 μm. Air being absorbed inside a capillary was also observed. Vessels under 10 μm diameter were unable to be visualized with using iodine as a contrast agent.
Conclusion: Phase contrast imaging already allows spatial resolution of 1 μm, which is enough to inspect capillaries. We were able to obtain images of cardiac capillaries with using air as a contrast agent. Yet air has the fatal limitations in that it causes embolism and ischemia. A more suitable contrast agent or imaging method needs to be developed in order to study the microvessels of a beating heart.
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KEYWORD
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Synchrotrons, Radiation, Contrast agents, Air, Iodine
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