Quantification of vascular perfusion in the spinal cord after injury
by Fligor, Ruthie S., M.Eng., UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE, 2011, 76 pages; 1509801

Abstract:

Traumatic injury destroys blood vessels at the injury epicenter and is followed by local angiogenesis and regional inflammation. Healing from injury depends on vascular health because blood supply is directly responsible for the health and function of surrounding tissue. This work establishes a new method for qualitatively and quantitatively measuring the blood supply of spinal cord (SC) tissue. Systemically injecting fluorescent microspheres (FMs) and cryostat sectioning SC tissue reveals a novel and potentially powerful way of assessing blood supply. This method is easily incorporated with existing tissue processing protocols because it does not require chemical digestion of the tissue region of interest. FM blood supply measurements show that after mild contusion injury, the epicenter has less blood flow while the blood flow several millimeters rostral and caudal to the epicenter is elevated compared to uninjured controls. The time course for vascular repair after spinal cord injury (SCI) has been widely studied and this pilot experiment was carried out seven days post-injury, at which point angiogenesis has reached its zenith and vascular pruning is minimal. A custom MATLAB program is used to automatically analyze FM distribution.

 
AdviserAndre .M. Gobin
SchoolUNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE
SourceMAI/ 50-05, p. , Apr 2012
Source TypeThesis
SubjectsNeurosciences; Biomedical engineering; Medical imaging and radiology
Publication Number1509801
Adobe PDF Access the complete dissertation:
 

» Find an electronic copy at your library.
  Use the link below to access a full citation record of this graduate work:
  http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl%3furl_ver=Z39.88-2004%26res_dat=xri:pqdiss%26rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation%26rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1509801
  If your library subscribes to the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database, you may be entitled to a free electronic version of this graduate work. If not, you will have the option to purchase one, and access a 24 page preview for free (if available).

About ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
With over 2.3 million records, the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database is the most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses in the world. It is the database of record for graduate research.

The database includes citations of graduate works ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester. Of the 2.3 million graduate works included in the database, ProQuest offers more than 1.9 million in full text formats. Of those, over 860,000 are available in PDF format. More than 60,000 dissertations and theses are added to the database each year.

If you have questions, please feel free to visit the ProQuest Web site - http://www.proquest.com - or call ProQuest Hotline Customer Support at 1-800-521-3042.