Contrast-enhanced Micro-CT imaging of a foetal female pelvic floor reveals anatomical details.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The pelvic floor is a highly important structure for the stability of the pelvis, providing support for the organs that lie within it. Until today, the detailed anatomy of the female perineal centre and the exact course of surrounding muscles remain controversial. We demonstrate a method to non-destructively obtain high-resolution contrast-enhanced x-ray microtomography images from a long-fixed sample and thereby aim to contribute to the detailed anatomical knowledge about the female pelvic floor.

Materials and methods

A human foetal pelvis of 20-21 weeks gestational age, formalin-fixed for 4 years, was immersed in Lugol solution and tomographically scanned periodically to document the staining process. The influence of the former fixation time was addressed by co

SUBMITTER: Aaldijk D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12165418 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature