Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Jan;35(1):59-64.
doi: 10.1080/01926230601184262.

Imaging techniques for small animal imaging models of pulmonary disease: micro-CT

Kennita A Johnson  1
Affiliations

Imaging techniques for small animal imaging models of pulmonary disease: micro-CT

Kennita A Johnson. Toxicol Pathol. 2007 Jan.

Abstract

Microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) is ideal for quantifying pulmonary disease because of the inherent contrast between tissue and air that exists in the lungs. Both in vivo and in vitro studies can be performed using micro-CT. Live animal studies show function, while fixed specimen studies show structure. Through the use of image processing techniques, both acute and chronic lung diseases can be quantified. The information provided by micro-CT is complementary to histological evaluation, since CT is nondestructive. This paper discusses two examples, in vivo and in vitro, of how micro-CT can be used to assess pulmonary diseases in small animal models. With the use of micro-CT, we were able to quantify pulmonary fibrosis in the live rat and investigate the microstructure of the airway in fixed mouse lungs.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A representative (a) micro-CT and (b) hematoxylin and eosin-stained histological image from a rat treated with bleomycin solution. Arrows indicate peribronchiolar inflammation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Rat lungs imaged with the Duke Micro-CT System (Duke CIVM, Durham, NC) (a) control, (b) 1 week, (c) 2 weeks, (d) 3 weeks, and (e) 7 weeks after treatment with bleomycin. Arrows = major airways. * = heart.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Histogram of lung tissue during expiration for 0, 1, 2, 3, and 7 weeks after instillation. The histograms were produced from micro-CT image information.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Histograms of lung tissue in (a) control, (b) 1 week, (c) 2 weeks, and (d) 3 weeks after instillation of bleomycin. The histograms were produced from micro-CT image information.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(A) Low-resolution and (B) high-resolution 3D models from micro-CT image data of the airway of fixed mouse lungs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Badea C, Hedlund LW, Johnson GA. Micro-CT with respiratory and cardiac gating. Med Phys. 2004;31:3324–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bushberg JT, Seibert JA, Leidholdt EM, Boone JM. Essential Physics of Medical Imaging. 2. Williams and Wilkins; Baltimore, MD: 1994.
    1. Cavanaugh D, Johnson E, Price RE, Kurie J, Travis EL, Cody DD. In vivo respiratory-gated micro-CT imaging in small-animal oncology models. Mol Imaging. 2004;3:55–62. - PubMed
    1. Chaturvedi A, Lee Z. Three-dimensional segmentation and skeletonization to build an airway tree data structure for small animals. Phys Med Biol. 2005;50:1405–19. - PubMed
    1. Ford NL, Thornton MM, Holdsworth DW. Fundamental image quality limits for microcomputed tomography in small animals. Med Phys. 2003;30:2869–77. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms