Analyzing the human liver vascular architecture by combining vascular corrosion casting and micro‐<scp>CT</scp> scanning: a feasibility study
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- Charlotte Debbaut
- Biofluid, Tissue and Solid Mechanics for Medical Applications Institute Biomedical Technology Department of Electronics and Information Systems, iMinds Future Health Department, Ghent University Gent Belgium
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- Patrick Segers
- Biofluid, Tissue and Solid Mechanics for Medical Applications Institute Biomedical Technology Department of Electronics and Information Systems, iMinds Future Health Department, Ghent University Gent Belgium
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- Pieter Cornillie
- Department of Morphology Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Ghent University Merelbeke Belgium
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- Christophe Casteleyn
- Laboratory of Applied Veterinary Morphology Department of Veterinary Sciences Faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences University of Antwerp Wilrijk Belgium
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- Manuel Dierick
- Department of Physics and Astronomy UGCT Ghent University Gent Belgium
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- Wim Laleman
- Department of Liver and Biliopancreatic Disorders University Hospitals Leuven Catholic University Leuven Leuven Belgium
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- Diethard Monbaliu
- Department of Abdominal Transplant Surgery University Hospitals Leuven Catholic University Leuven Leuven Belgium
Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Although a full understanding of the hepatic circulation is one of the keys to successfully perform liver surgery and to elucidate liver pathology, relatively little is known about the functional organization of the liver vasculature. Therefore, we materialized and visualized the human hepatic vasculature at different scales, and performed a morphological analysis by combining vascular corrosion casting with novel micro‐computer tomography (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CT</jats:styled-content>) and image analysis techniques. A human liver vascular corrosion cast was obtained by simultaneous resin injection in the hepatic artery (HA) and portal vein (PV). A high resolution (110 μm) micro‐<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CT</jats:styled-content> scan of the total cast allowed gathering detailed macrovascular data. Subsequently, a mesocirculation sample (starting at generation 5; 88 × 68 × 80 mm³) and a microcirculation sample (terminal vessels including sinusoids; 2.0 × 1.5 × 1.7 mm³) were dissected and imaged at a 71‐μm and 2.6‐μm resolution, respectively. Segmentations and 3D reconstructions allowed quantifying the macro‐ and mesoscale branching topology, and geometrical features of HA, PV and hepatic venous trees up to 13 generations (radii ranging from 13.2 mm to 80 μm; lengths from 74.4 mm to 0.74 mm), as well as microvascular characteristics (mean sinusoidal radius of 6.63 μm). Combining corrosion casting and micro‐<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CT</jats:styled-content> imaging allows quantifying the branching topology and geometrical features of hepatic trees using a multiscale approach from the macro‐ down to the microcirculation. This may lead to novel insights into liver circulation, such as internal blood flow distributions and anatomical consequences of pathologies (e.g. cirrhosis).</jats:p>
Journal
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- Journal of Anatomy
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Journal of Anatomy 224 (4), 509-517, 2014-01-17
Wiley
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Details 詳細情報について
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- CRID
- 1360298760664799488
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- ISSN
- 14697580
- 00218782
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- Data Source
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- Crossref