Fig 1.
Venous thrombus induced by stenosis models in the rabbit inferior vena cava (IVC).
Left: fresh blood clots in the IVC immediately after thrombosis induction. Right: thrombus on day 7 before exteriorizing presenting a dark red color with small patches of calcification. Blue and red arrows indicate the position of the ligation and blood clots, respectively.
Fig 2.
Ultrasound measurement of the thrombus on day 14 in the head, body and tail.
The upper and lower row show the shear wave elastography and the gray-scale ultrasound findings of the three parts of the thrombus. The region of interest (ROI) boundary is indicated by a dashed-line circle. As shown in the colour bar, clot hardening correlates with a gradual color change within the clot from dark blue to deep red.
Fig 3.
Pathological images of a thrombus cross-section scanned by an automatic pathological digitized scanning system (APDSS) showing clot construction in rabbit #27 on day 11 after induction.
The left image shows the scanning image of the whole thrombus; the right image shows the enlarged part of the scanning image to show different thrombus components. A fuzzy boundary between the thrombus and the vessel wall at the 12 o’clock position and the new filling with fresh red cells in the left image was considered organization and subsequent recanalization. RBC, red blood cell; PLT, platelet trabecula; Ca, calcium salt deposition.
Fig 4.
Ultrasound variation of the ROI in the thrombus of rabbit #35 on day 2 (left), day 6 (middle) and day 14 (right).
The lower row shows gray-scale ultrasound changes in the ROI, the thrombi in the ROI are traced by the blue dashed line; the upper panel shows the shear wave elastography (SWE) changes in the ROI. The vein under analysis and the adjacent tissue are indicated by a solid-line rectangular frame. Thrombus hardening correlates with a gradual color change from dark blue to deep red in the SWE images. The Young's modulus (YM) values were 3.15 kPa (day 2), 7.20 kPa (day 6) and 12.39 kPa (day 14).
Fig 5.
Average YM curves of the whole thrombus (a) and the three parts (b: head; c: body; d: tail) over the 2-week monitoring period starting at thrombus induction.
The most obvious transition points are marked by solid and dashed lines. Data are expressed as the mean ± SD for the detection of YM in vivo at one time point.
Fig 6.
Pathological scanning images of different thrombus stages on day 2 for rabbit #8, day 5 for rabbit #44 and day 11 for rabbit #27.
Each thrombus was divided into the following three parts: head (left), body (middle) and tail (right). Large differences were observed in the thrombus components both between the thrombi on different days and within a single thrombus on the same day.
Table 1.
Quantitative variations in thrombus composition of the head, body and tail at different stages on day 2, day 5 and day 11.
Fig 7.
Trends in variations of the thrombus composition for the whole thrombus (a) and the three parts (b: head; c: body; and d: tail).
Data are expressed as the mean ± SD, n = 3 cases at each corresponding examination point. All trends became more obvious on day 4 (dashed lines) and day 7 (solid lines). Rr represents the components of red blood cells and platelet trabecula, Rp represents fibrin and Rb represents the nucleus and calcium salt deposition.
Fig 8.
Heterogeneity of the pathological results between two rabbits (#33 and #36) on day 8.
Each thrombus was divided into the following three parts: head (left), body (middle) and tail (right). Large differences were observed in the components both between two thrombi and within the three different parts of a single thrombus.
Table 2.
Quantitative variations in thrombus composition of different parts in rabbits #33 and #36 on day 8.