Disorders of blood microcirculation can have devastating effects, contributing to heart failure, kidney failure, and chronic diseases. However, existing imaging technologies cannot visualize the full network of arteries, veins, and microvessels throughout an entire organ in real time. Now, researchers have developed a groundbreaking 4D imaging technique that captures organ-wide blood flow in three dimensions plus time—offering a new window into the body’s circulatory system.

Blood microcirculation—the flow of blood through tiny vessels that deliver oxygen and nutrients to tissues—is vital to organ health. When this intricate system malfunctions, cells are deprived of essential resources, and waste removal is impaired. Until now, no imaging modality has been capable of simultaneously visualizing and quantifying the microcirculatory network at high resolution across an entire organ.

Researchers at the Physics for Medicine Institute (Inserm/ESPCI Paris-PSL/CNRS, Paris, France) have developed a novel ultrasound probe that uses advanced ultrasound imaging principles to create 4D maps of vascularization and blood flow dynamics in large animal models—specifically the heart, kidney, and liver—at a level of precision never achieved before.

Their findings, published in Nature Communications, show that the non-invasive system successfully visualized blood vessels smaller than 100 micrometers and even distinguished the liver’s three separate vascular networks—arterial, venous, and portal—by identifying their unique hemodynamic signatures. This ability to differentiate fine vascular structures opens new possibilities for understanding how blood flow changes across organs under both healthy and diseased conditions.

According to the researchers, this technology represents a major step toward clinical application. The device can be paired with portable ultrasound equipment, making it feasible for hospital and clinical settings. An upcoming clinical trial will evaluate the system’s safety and effectiveness in human patients.

“This 4D image resolution is unprecedented, as is the ability to observe an entire large organ and its flow dynamics,” said Clément Papadacci. “Used in clinical settings, this technology could become a major tool for understanding vascular dynamics as a whole and could improve the diagnosis and monitoring of microcirculation disorders that are currently very difficult to detect.”

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