Technologies

Northwestern investigators tested the hypothesis that VX2 implantation in the rabbit uterus could induce a successful fibroid model and that MRI could detect acute perfusion changes in this model following UAE.

BACKGROUND

VX2 cells were implanted into the uterus of 3 New Zealand White rabbits and incubated for 21-30 days. Once MRI (Siemens 1.5T Sonata) confirmed growth of uterine tumors, each rabbit underwent bilateral uterine digital subtraction arteriography. Subsequent UAE was carried out to stasis with 100-300 micron spherical PVA (BeadBlock, Terumo). Pre and post-UAE contrast enhanced T1-weighted MRI was performed using intravenous gadolinium (Gd) contrast agent. Following UAE, rabbits were euthanized and each uterus harvested for pathologic analysis. Using a computer workstation, signal enhancement was measured pre and post-UAE in 4 quadrants for each uterine tumor (n = 8 separate measurements for each uterine tumor). Mean fibroid enhancement pre and post-UAE using the Student's t-test was statistically compared, with alpha=0.05.

RESULTS

In 3 rabbits, 3 discrete VX2 uterine tumors were successfully grown, imaged, and embolized. All tumors were confirmed on gross pathology and ranged in size from 2-4cm in diameter. On MRI, mean tumor enhancement pre-embolization was 32.2±14.1 and post-embolization was 9.60±5.62. This difference was statistically significant (p<0.01).