Quantitative characterization and diagnosis via hard X-ray phase-contrast microtomography.

Abstract

Nondestructive three-dimensional (3D) micromorphological imaging technique is essential for hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (HAE) disease to determine its damage level and early diagnosis, assess relative drug therapy and optimize treatment strategies. However, the existing morphological researches of HAE mainly depend on the conventional CT, MRI, or ultrasound in hospitals, unfortunately confronting with the common limit of imaging resolution and sensitivity, especially for tiny or early HAE lesions. Now we presented a phase-retrieval-based synchrotron X-ray phase computed tomography (PR-XPCT) with striking contrast-to-noise ratio and high-density resolution to visualize the HAE nondestructive 3D structures and quantitatively segment different pathological characteristics of HAE lesions without staining process at the micrometer scale. Our experimental results of the HAE rat models at early and developed pathological stages and albendazole liposome (L-ABZ) therapeutic feeding models successfully exhibited the different HAE pathological 3D morphological and microstructural characteristics with excellent contrast and high resolution, demonstrating its availability and superiority. Moreover, we achieved the quantitative statistics and analysis of the pathological changes of HAE lesions at different stages and L-ABZ therapeutic evaluation, helpful to understanding the development and drug treatment of HAE disease. The PR-XPCT-based quantitative segmentation and characterization has a great potential in detection and analysis of soft tissue pathological changes, such as different tumors.

• Authors: Huiqiang Liu, Xuewen Ji, Yan Ma, Guohao Du, Yanan Fu, Yibanu Abudureheman, Wenya Liu
• Journal: Microscopy research and technique (Microsc Res Tech) Vol. 81 Issue 10 Pg. 1173-1181 (Oct 2018) ISSN: 1097-0029 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 30238563 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Chemical References

• Albendazole

Topics

• Albendazole (administration & dosage, pharmacology)
• Animals
• Disease Models, Animal
• Echinococcosis, Hepatic (diagnosis, pathology, therapy)
• Echinococcus multilocularis (cytology)
• Gerbillinae
• Imaging, Three-Dimensional (methods)
• Male
• Rats
• Rats, Sprague-Dawley
• Synchrotrons
• X-Ray Microtomography (methods)