title: Three-dimensional visualization of the microvasculature of bile duct ligation-induced liver fibrosis in rats by x-ray phase-contrast imaging computed tomography.
abstract: X-ray phase-contrast imaging (PCI) can substantially enhance contrast, and is particularly useful in differentiating biological soft tissues with small density differences. Combined with computed tomography (CT), PCI-CT enables the acquisition of accurate microstructures inside biological samples. In this study, liver microvasculature was visualized without contrast agents in vitro with PCI-CT using liver fibrosis samples induced by bile duct ligation (BDL) in rats. The histological section examination confirmed the correspondence of CT images with the microvascular morphology of the samples. By means of the PCI-CT and three-dimensional (3D) visualization technique, 3D microvascular structures in samples from different stages of liver fibrosis were clearly revealed. Different types of blood vessels, including portal veins and hepatic veins, in addition to ductular proliferation and bile ducts, could be distinguished with good sensitivity, excellent specificity and excellent accuracy. The study showed that PCI-CT could assess the morphological changes in liver microvasculature that result from fibrosis and allow characterization of the anatomical and pathological features of the microvasculature. With further development of PCI-CT technique, it may become a novel noninvasive imaging technique for the auxiliary analysis of liver fibrosis.
authors.affiliation: College of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Ruijiao
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Xuan
authors.affiliation: Liver Research Center, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100050, China.
authors.forename: Xinyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Liver Research Center, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100050, China.
authors.forename: Doudou
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: College of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Jianbo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jian
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Tailing
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Chunhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000792:Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D001652:Bile Ducts / Q000601:surgery; D003287:Contrast Media; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008026:Ligation; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D055806:Microvessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media