Vascular imaging is a very important technique for distinguishing the vascular network. The vascular system has an inherently low X-ray contrast, thus making contrast agents necessary for CT imaging. The properties and behavior of the contrast agent are thus critical for this technique. Unstable contrast agents can dissociate or leach from the host matrices, which can lead to poor quality images. Also, the lack of inherent radiopaque agents has severely hindered the imaging technique. This work is focused on the creation of novel nanoparticle-containing composite gels for improved imaging of the fine vasculature of biological systems using X-ray techniques. While the larger diameter regions of the vasculature can be imaged with larger particles and more traditional X-ray methods, the fine vasculature poses more significant challenges with the need for high contrast but small capillary diameter. The heavy metal salt BaSO4 is used as an X-ray contrast agent due to its excellent X-ray visibility. The nanoparticles are composed of barium sulfate (BaSO4) cores with diameters in the 50 nm to 100 nm range that is capped with polyethylene-glycol ligands (PEG-6000 as a non-limiting example) which provide stabilization of the inorganic cores and confer water solubility to the system. These ultrafine particles can readily perfuse the fine vasculature. The PBN is fixed by dispersing within an alginate solution followed by cross-linking of the alginate gel. The resulting PBN-poly(alginate) composite has X-ray contrast that can be controlled by variation of [PBN].

Fine vasculature imaging with micro-CT using nanocomposites

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.