Abstract
CT and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) are ubiquitous in the clinic. Their preclinical equivalents are valuable imaging methods for studying disease models and treatment. We have developed a dual source/detector X-ray imaging system that we have used for both micro-CT and DSA studies in rodents. The control of such a complex imaging system requires substantial software development for which we use the graphical language LabVIEW (National Instruments, Austin, TX, USA). This paper focuses on a LabVIEW platform that we have developed to enable anatomical and functional imaging with micro-CT and DSA. Our LabVIEW applications integrate and control all the elements of our system including a dual source/detector X-ray system, a mechanical ventilator, a physiological monitor, and a power microinjector for the vascular delivery of X-ray contrast agents. Various applications allow cardiac- and respiratory-gated acquisitions for both DSA and micro-CT studies. Our results illustrate the application of DSA for cardiopulmonary studies and vascular imaging of the liver and coronary arteries. We also show how DSA can be used for functional imaging of the kidney. Finally, the power of 4D micro-CT imaging using both prospective and retrospective gating is shown for cardiac imaging.
Highlights
Clinical X-ray-based imaging using digital subtraction angiography (DSA) or computed tomography (CT) has highlighted the value of dynamic real-time acquisition for characterizing cardiac function and blood flow
Our results present a series of images from DSA and microCT imaging using our integrated imaging system
We describe our LabVIEW-based approach to building the software control of our custom built X-ray based preclinical imaging system
Summary
Clinical X-ray-based imaging using digital subtraction angiography (DSA) or computed tomography (CT) has highlighted the value of dynamic real-time acquisition for characterizing cardiac function and blood flow. The lack of commercial systems suitable for such tasks prompted us to develop a dual source/detector X-ray imaging system to use for both micro-CT and DSA studies in rodents [1]. The control of such a complex imaging system requires substantial software development for which we used the graphical language LabVIEW (National Instruments, Austin, TX). We describe our approach to control custom-built, flexible Xray-based imaging systems using applications developed in LabVIEW
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