Circulatory system in 3-D

A New View of the Cardiovascular System in 3-D

By Sheril Kirschenbaum | October 30, 2015 

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The parrot had a terminal disease and was entered into the Grey Parrot Anatomy Project at the University of Utah.  During this phase of the study, the vasculature was highlighted with BriteVu and revealed previously undescribed anatomic features such as the kinked jugular vein at the lower right of the picture.  The kink represents vessel slack and allows the parrot to turn its head without risk of collapsing the large vein.  The parrot was scanned at 100 µm.  For more details on the anatomy study,click here.

Dr. Scott Echols is a board certified avian veterinary specialist who really loves birds. He thinks it's time we looked at them more closely—literally—and has developed an exciting new imaging technique to do so.

Echols invented a novel non-invasive imaging method to view blood vessels and capillaries with great detail using BriteVu—a high radiodensity contrasting agent containing barium, food grade ingredients and silica.

The discovery began as part of the Grey Parrot Anatomy Project when Echols was searching for a way to visualize an animal's entire cardiovascular system. His team tried myriad commercially available contrasting agents, as well as some homemade agents concocted by fellow researchers. But nothing worked particularly well./.../