In vivo measurements of blood flow in a rat using X-ray imaging technique

Abstract

To measure instantaneous velocity fields of venous blood flow in a rat using X-ray particle tracking method. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) incorporated chitosan microparticles were applied as biocompatible flow tracers. After intravenous injection of the AuNP-chitosan particles into 7- to 9-week-old male rat vein, X-ray images of particle movement inside the cranial vena cava were consecutively captured. Individual AuNP-chitosan particles in the venous blood flow were clearly observed, and the corresponding velocity vectors were successfully extracted. The measured velocity vectors are in good agreement with the theoretical velocity profile suggested by Casson. This is the first trial to measure blood flow in animals under in vivo conditions with X-ray imaging technique. The results show that X-ray particle tracking technique has a great potential for in vivo measurements of blood flow, which can extend to various biomedical applications related with the diagnosis of circulatory vascular diseases.

Particle tracking in drug and gene delivery research: State-of-the-art applications and methods

“…Intravital particle tracking has been used to indirectly observe blood flow velocity with tracer particles in the systemic circulation [107-110] and in the colonic microcirculation in experimental inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) [111], as well as to indirectly observe decreases in cerebrospinal fluid flow after traumatic brain injury [112]. More recently, intravital particle tracking techniques have been adapted to tracking NP for drug and gene delivery in vivo in real time.…”

Detection of circulating tumor cellsviaan X-ray imaging technique

“…In this study, the movement of cancer cells is effectively captured with the use of a synchrotron X-ray imaging technique when positively charged AuNPs, which are inappropriate for incorporation into RBCs, are incorporated into the cancer cells. In vivo dynamic X-ray imaging of blood flows has become available recently (Jung et al, 2012), and the AuNP-incorporated…”

“…The enhanced properties of AuNPs in photophysical processes have been employed for an effective cancer detection (Durr et al, 2007;El-Sayed et al, 2005;Huang et al, 2007a;Popovtzer et al, 2008;Sokolov et al, 2003). AuNPs also have merits as effective X-ray contrast agents because of their high X-ray absorption coefficient (Ahn et al, 2010(Ahn et al, , 2011aAstolfo et al, 2012;Chien et al, 2012;Hainfeld et al, 2006;Menk et al, 2011;Jung et al, 2012).…”

Simultaneous measurement of bubble size, velocity and void fraction in two-phase bubbly flows with time-resolved X-ray imaging

“…X-ray imaging techniques using a fan-beam-type medical X-ray tube (Aeschlimann et al, 2011;Baker & Bonazza, 1998;Bauer et al, 2012;Chaouki et al, 1997;Fischer et al, 2008;Heindel, 2011;Kendoush & Sarkis, 2002;Seeger et al, 2002Seeger et al, , 2004 and synchrotron X-ray beams (Jung et al, 2012;Lee & Kim, 2003Lee & Socha, 2009;Lin et al, 2011;Vabre et al, 2009) have been used for two-phase flow measurements. In X-ray imaging experiments using a medical X-ray tube, the spatial and temporal resolution are relatively poor and only the absorption-contrast imaging method is available.…”