Microvascular System of a Human Brain

Scott Echols, Bruce Wainmann, McMaster University

Contrast agents can be used both in radiological and magnetic resonance imaging scans. These compounds are able to alter the contrast of an image of a given organ, lesion or any other structure in relation to everything which surrounds it.  This image was developed by Dr Bruce Wainman at McMaster University in Canada. Using a human head from a donor programme, Dr Wainman saturated it with the contrast fluid BriteVu. Through a CT scan, he obtained an image of the vascular system of head and brain of unprecedented detail, even down to the capillaries. Together with other similar techniques, contrast imaging provides a precision of detail which would otherwise simply not be appreciable – microscopic detail, hitherto invisible to us, which has transformed our anatomical understanding.