Researchers shed literal light on fine-structure imaging
Some of America’s and Germany’s best and—excuse the pun—brightest minds have come together to develop a new class of optical-imaging probe. Its injectable nanoparticles emit short-wave infrared (SWIR) light and may be useful for imaging fine anatomic structures like blood-vessel networks.
MedicalPhysicsWeb.org posted an article on the research April 28.
The intense brightness of the particles—aka “quantum dots”—“makes it possible to produce not just single images but a video that captures details of motion, such as the flow of blood, making it possible to distinguish between veins and arteries,” lead researcher Moungi Bawendi of MIT tells the outlet.
Bawendi’s colleague Oliver Bruns adds that the new technique can not only determine the direction in which blood flows but also is “detailed enough to track individual particles within that flow. We can track the flow in each and every capillary at high speed and obtain a quantitative measure of this flow.”
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Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.