Comparison of Rhenium and Iodine as Contrast Agents in X-Ray Imaging

Figure 15

Pixel intensity analysis of the coatings. The pixel intensities were determined by measuring the grey values across circles drawn inside the coatings using Image-Pro Plus 7 (Media Cybernetics, Rockville, USA). The variation in pixel intensity across the coatings is shown in (a) for the vascular catheter and (e) for the PTCA dilatation catheter. 3D plots of the distribution of grey values are shown for the vascular catheter in (b), (c), and (d) and for the PTCA dilatation catheter in (f) and (g). Samples: (b, f) rhenium-doped polymer-based coating, (c, g) rhenium-free polymer-based coating, and (d) no coating.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)