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The visible heart ‐ Analysis of myocardial fiber structure using three‐dimensional histology
Author(s) -
Wigström Lars,
Ennis Daniel B,
Nguyen Tom C,
Miller D Craig,
Ingels Neil B
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a1198-a
Subject(s) - isotropy , orientation (vector space) , perpendicular , voxel , materials science , fiber , optics , biomedical engineering , geometry , artificial intelligence , physics , mathematics , computer science , medicine , composite material
The arrangement of myofibers in the heart is complex, but highly organized. The goal of this study was to develop a novel method for quantifying the three‐dimensional (3D) structure of myocardium with high isotropic spatial resolution. Methods A 24×16×2 mm tissue block from the lateral wall of an excised ovine heart was sectioned using a Leica CM3600 macrotome. 256 serial sections with a slice thickness of 8 μm were cut parallel to the left ventricular short axis plane. For each slice, an image of the remaining tissue was obtained using a digital camera (Nikon D70), resulting in a 3D image data set with 8 μm isotropic voxel size. Using 3D image processing, the orientation of structures was automatically estimated in every voxel. The angle within a plane parallel to the epicardial surface was determined at all levels through the myocardial wall. Based on the estimated fiber angles, a new curved image plane was reformatted perpendicularly to the fiber orientation. Results Images extracted from the 3D dataset, parallel to the epicardial surface, show the transmural variation in fiber angles (Fig 1). 1Fiber angles estimated at 1200 different transmural depths are plotted in Fig 2. 2A curved image plane extracted perpendicularly to the fiber orientation clearly demonstrates the myocardial fiber sheets (Fig 3). 3Conclusion Using 3D isotropic histology data, automatic quantification of myocardial fiber structures can be performed and any slice orientation can be retrospectively extracted to provide new insights into the complex myocardial fiber structure. This work was supported by the NIH, the Stanford Center for Innovation in In‐vivo Imaging (SCi 3 ) and the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation.