Very High-Resolution Imaging of Post-Mortem Human Cardiac Tissue Using X-Ray Phase Contrast Tomography

This paper investigates the 3D microscopic structure of exvivo human cardiac muscle. Usual 3D imaging techniques such as DMRI or CT do not achieve the required resolution to visualise cardio-myocytes, therefore we employ X-ray phase contrast micro-CT, developed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). Nine tissue samples from the left ventricle and septum were prepared and imaged at an isotropic resolution of 3.5 μm, which is sufficient to visualise cardiomyocytes.The obtained volumes are compared with 2D histological examinations, which serve as a basis for interpreting the 3D X-ray phasecontrast results. Our experiments show that 3D X-ray phase-contrast micro-CT is a viable technique for investigating the 3D arrangement of myocytes ex-vivo at a microscopic level, allowing a better understanding of the 3D cardiac tissue architecture.