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A Novel Fluorescent Cardiac Imaging System for Preclinical Intraoperative Angiography Publisher Pubmed



Mashalchi S1 ; Pahlavan S2 ; Hejazi M1, 3
Authors
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Authors Affiliations
  1. 1. Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering Department, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1417613151, Iran
  2. 2. Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Banihashem St., Resalat Highway, P.O. Box: 16635-148, Tehran, 1665659911, Iran
  3. 3. Research Center for Molecular and Cellular Imaging, Bio-Optical Imaging Group, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Source: BMC Medical Imaging Published:2021


Abstract

Background: Intraoperative coronary angiography can tremendously reduce early coronary bypass graft failures. Fluorescent cardiac imaging provides an advanced method for intraoperative observation and real-time quantitation of blood flow with high resolution. Methods: We devised a system comprised of an LED light source, special filters, lenses and a detector for preclinical coronary artery angiography. The optical setup was implemented by using two achromatic doublet lenses, two positive meniscus lenses, a band-pass filter, a pinhole and a CCD sensor. The setup was optimized by Zemax software. Optical design was further challenged to obtain more parallel light beams, less diffusion and higher resolutions to levels as small as arterioles. Ex vivo rat hearts were prepared and coronary arteries were retrogradely perfused by indocyanine green (ICG). Video angiography was employed to assess blood flow and plot time-dependent fluorescence intensity curve (TIC). Quantitation of blood flow was performed by calculating either the gradient of TIC or area under curve. The correlation between blood flow and each calculated parameters was assessed and used to evaluate the quality of flow. Results: High-resolution images of flow in coronary arteries were obtained as precise as 62 µm vessel diameter, by our custom-made ICG angiography system. The gradient of TIC was 3.4–6.3 s−1, while the area under curve indicated 712–1282 s values which ultimately gained correlation coefficients of 0.9938 and 0.9951 with relative blood flow, respectively. Conclusion: The present ICG angiography system may facilitate evaluation of blood flow in animal studies of myocardial infarction and coronary artery grafts intraoperatively. © 2021, The Author(s).