A technical report in the October issue of Nature Medicine introduces a new method to visualize tissue and its associated blood vessels in a living organism with greater detail than had previously been achieved, providing a promising tool for diagnostic and therapeutic studies.
Fabian Kiessling and his colleagues experimented with a prototype volumetric computed tomography (VCT) scanner that is designed for high-resolution three-dimensional imaging. Using this technique, they analyzed the structure of human carcinomas transplanted into mice, and visualized their architecture with much greater detail than other available techniques such as magnetic resonance angiography. They even succeeded in observing small tumor vessels with a diameter as small as 50 micrometers, and could clearly distinguish between living and dead tissue.

The development of this technique substantially improves imaging of blood vessels and other structures, and offers a promising tool for the study of tumors and therapies that are aimed at interfering with their blood supply.
Source : Nature Medicine