Zhang Lu, Luo Shuqian
School of Biomedical Engineering, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Open Med Inform J. 2011;5(Suppl 1):19-25. doi: 10.2174/1874431101105010019. Epub 2011 Jul 27.
The current imaging methods have a limited ability to visualize microstructures of biological soft tissues. Small lesions cannot be detected at the early stage of the disease. Phase contrast imaging (PCI) is a novel non-invasive imaging technique that can provide high contrast images of soft tissues by the use of X-ray phase shift. It is a new choice in terms of non-invasively revealing soft tissue details. In this study, the lung and hepatic fibrosis models of mice and rats were used to investigate the ability of PCI in microstructures observation of soft tissues. Our results demonstrated that different liver fibrosis stages could be distinguished non-invasively by PCI. The three-dimensional morphology of a segment of blood vessel was constructed. Noteworthy, the blood clot inside the vessel was visualized in three dimensions which provided a precise description of vessel stenosis. Furthermore, the whole lung airways including the alveoli were obtained. We had specifically highlighted its use in the visualization and assessment of the alveoli. To our knowledge, this was the first time for non-invasive alveoli imaging using PCI. This finding may offer a new perspective on the diagnosis of respiratory disease. All the results confirmed that PCI will be a valuable tool in biological soft tissues imaging.
当前的成像方法在可视化生物软组织微观结构方面能力有限。在疾病早期无法检测到小病变。相衬成像（PCI）是一种新型非侵入性成像技术，它可以通过利用X射线相移提供软组织的高对比度图像。就非侵入性揭示软组织细节而言，它是一种新的选择。在本研究中，使用小鼠和大鼠的肺和肝纤维化模型来研究PCI在软组织微观结构观察方面的能力。我们的结果表明，PCI可以非侵入性地区分不同的肝纤维化阶段。构建了一段血管的三维形态。值得注意的是，血管内的血凝块在三维上可视化，这提供了对血管狭窄的精确描述。此外，获得了包括肺泡在内的整个肺气道。我们特别强调了其在肺泡可视化和评估中的应用。据我们所知，这是首次使用PCI进行非侵入性肺泡成像。这一发现可能为呼吸系统疾病的诊断提供新的视角。所有结果证实，PCI将成为生物软组织成像中的一种有价值的工具。
