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| Traditional imaging (top) as opposed to NO-stress (bottom), which makes the vessel walls visible--Courtesy of U. of Basel |
In the interest of designing new nano-sized vehicles for cardiovascular drugs, Swiss researchers have developed an X-ray technique for visualizing blood vessels that have been constricted by atherosclerosis. The method, called NO-stress, helps the team from the University of Basel differentiate between soft and hard tissues--in this case the blood vessel from the constricting plaques. By characterizing the artherosclerotic blood vessels in 3-D, the scientists hope to design containers for local delivery of vasodilation drugs, according to the university and as published in the journal Nature Protocols. Release | Abstract