X-ray based micro-computed tomography (CT) and micro-digital subtraction angiography (DSA) are important non-invasive imaging modalities for following tumorogenesis in small animals. To exploit these imaging capabilities further, the two modalities were combined into a single system to provide both morphological and functional data from the same tumor in a single imaging session. The system is ...

Background Despite ongoing advances in magnetic resonance (MR) sequence development, coronary imaging in paediatric patients remains challenging. MR imaging of the coronary arteries can be difficult due to high heart rates (HR), small diameter of the coronary arteries, and poor contrast between the blood pool and extravascular structures. The use of higher relaxivity contrast agents has been sh...

Background While CMR has become instrumental in imaging complex congential heart disease (CHD), limitations remain including significant flow and metal artifact on cine images. 2D dark blood imaging generally requires gating to diastole which may not capture the maximal vessel dimensions, is time consuming and dependent on precise plane positioning. Traditional 3D whole heart sequences are also...

To analyze the specificity of the diffuse pattern of cardiac uptake with technetium-99m stannous pyrophosphate (TcPYP), we evaluated the bone scans of 1,383 noncardiac patients and the myocardial scintigrams of 120 cardiac patients. Seventy (14.4%) of 483 bone scans performed on a scintillation camera revealed diffuse TcPYP cardiac uptake. Among the total 603 camera bone scans and myocardial sc...

Adenosine stress echocardiography was performed in nine patients (58 (+/-3) years, eight women) with documented microvascular angina. Global ventricular function was assessed by Tc(99m) blood pool imaging and Doppler, whereas longitudinal ventricular function was assessed by simultaneous tissue Doppler echocardiography of the lateral mitral annulus. Adenosine was infused incrementally to onset ...

Most of the erythrocyte related diseases are detectable by hematology images analysis. At the first step of this analysis, segmentation and detection of blood cells are inevitable. In this study, a novel method using a line operator and watershed algorithm is rendered for erythrocyte detection and segmentation in blood smear images, as well as reducing over-segmentation in watershed algorithm t...

Background A fundamental component of the CMR exam is contrast enhanced imaging, which is crucial for delineating diseased from normal tissue. Unfortunately, diseased tissue adjacent to vasculature often remains hidden since there is poor contrast between hyperenhanced tissue and bright blood-pool. Conventional black-blood double-IR methods are not a solution; these were not designed to functio...

Background Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) is commonly used clinically to identify myocardial infarct or scar as a hyper-enhanced region. However, the blood pool also remains bright in such images, masking adjacent bright tissue. LGE has also been used extensively to image fibrosis in the left atrium (LA) in patients with atrial fibrillation. However, identification of LA wall in LGE is chall...

Our purpose is to test if Pluronic® fluorescent nanomicelles can be used for in vivo two-photon imaging of both the normal and the tumor vasculature. The nanomicelles were obtained after encapsulating a hydrophobic two-photon dye: di-stryl benzene derivative, in Pluronic block copolymers. Their performance with respect to imaging depth, blood plasma staining, and diffusion across the tumor vasc...