Myocardial infarction, caused by a major blockage of a coronary artery, creates a border zone (BZ) between perfused and nonperfused tissue, which is believed to be the origin of fatal cardiac arrhythmias. We used a combination of optical clearing and polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography to visualize a three-dimensional organization of the BZ in isolated rabbit hearts ($n=5$) at the microscopic level with a high spatial resolution. We found that the BZ has a complex three-dimensional structure with nonperfused areas penetrating into perfused tissue with finger-like projections. These “fingers” may play an important role in the initiation and maintenance of ventricular arrhythmias.

© 2012 Optical Society of America

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

Multimedia

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

Related Journal Articles

• Depth-resolved microscopy of cortical hemodynamics with optical coherence tomography (OL)
• Rapid volumetric angiography of cortical microvasculature with optical coherence tomography (OL)
• Quantitative cerebral blood flow with Optical Coherence Tomography (OE)
• Optical coherence microscopy for deep tissue imaging of the cerebral cortex with intrinsic contrast (OE)
• OCT methods for capillary velocimetry (BOE)

Related Conference Papers

• Three-Dimensional Imaging by High-Speed Wide Field Optical Coherence Tomography
• Application of the Maximum Entropy Method to Fourier Domain Optical Coherence Tomography
• Three-Dimensional Imaging by High-Speed Wide Field Optical Coherence Tomography
• Application of the Maximum Entropy Method to Fourier Domain Optical Coherence Tomography
• Quantitative Optical Imaging of Vascular Structure and Function in a Model of Peripheral Arterial Disease