Da Costa's Syndrome: Aetiology. Lecture III

Abstract

<b>382</b> <h3><b>Objectives</b></h3> Preclinical Molecular Imaging technologies have an increasingly broader application base while at the same time are becoming more user friendly. To the best of our knowledge, to date no automated or semi-automated system has been developed that allows probe injections and blood sampling from a rodent9s tail. Tail vein injections are a routine but critical step in most imaging applications, while poor injections greatly affect the experimental results. We have devised a semi-automated vascular access system to facilitate injections and blood sampling from the mouse tail. We have eliminated the handheld needle approach by using a mechanically moving needle, controlled by machine vision. This approach reduces the operator skill requirements, allows the use of significantly smaller needles than those currently used by handheld means, and has the potential to provide improved control in time and location of the injected volumes and drawn samples. <h3><b>Methods</b></h3> We localize the superficial tail blood vessel with near infra-red live video imaging. The needle is aligned with the vessel, according to the image, by mechanical means. The needle is then inserted into the vessel by a linear actuator. The monitoring and feedback of the needle insertion is done with a pressure transducer connected to the needle. Once the needle is inserted, probe injection and/or blood sampling can be done either manually or controlled by microfluidic systems. <h3><b>Results</b></h3> We have constructed a prototype vascular access system with which we can reliably locate vessels in the tail of an anesthetized mouse and insert miniature, 34 gauge needles, into the vessel. Our feedback system provides us with information on the success of the needle insertion, which we have verified by PET imaging of the mouse, including the tail. <h3><b>Conclusions</b></h3> Our device will aid in preclinical molecular imaging of mice and other mouse handling techniques where access to the mouse tail vessels is necessary. We continue to work on our prototype device to make it more user friendly and robust