Investigating the 3D cardiomyocyte arrangement in human interventricular septum sample using X-ray phase-contrast microtomography

A good knowledge of the three-dimensional cardiomyocyte arrangement in interventricular septum is crucial for understanding both ventricle’s functions. In this preliminary study, we investigate the local myocardial architecture in a human interventricular septum sample imaged by X-ray phase-contrast micro-tomography. This imaging modality allows us to visualize the complex structure of myocardial tissue at high resolution. We first cut the reconstruction data into sub-volume of 32×32×32 voxels (i.e. 112×112×112 μm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup>) in size, and compute the elevation angle of the local cardiomyocyte using Fast Fourier Transform based method. Then, we describe the distribution of cardiomyocyte elevation angle in the sample globally and locally. We note that, in part of regions, the running of cardiomyocyte aggregates is winding. Though the function of this specific cardiomyocyte arrangement manner is unclear, its existence is inspiring and merits further investigation.