SYNTHESIS OF A BARIUM SULFATE NANOPARTICLE CONTRAST AGENT FOR MICRO-COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY OF BONE MICROSTRUCTURE

摘要

A noninvasive, three-dimensional technique is needed to image microstructural features -such as microcracks and vasculature - in bone tissue. Micro-computed tomography (μCT) using a radiopaque barium sulfate contrast agent to label microstructural features in bone tissue has been proposed. The size of vasculature and microcracks in bone tissue requires nano-scale barium sulfate particles. Therefore, a simple aqueous precipitation method was used to synthesize barium sulfate particles less than 100 nra in size. The effects of the reagent solution concentration, molar ratio, feeding order, feeding speed and pH were investigated. Finally, the feasibility of imaging the synthesized barium sulfate nanoparticles in |.tCT was verified. The detected signal due to barium sulfate nanoparticles was amplified by a volumetric factor of nearly eight, which enabled detection of features much smaller than the nominal resolution of the instrument.