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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Oct 29.
Published in final edited form as: JACC Cardiovasc Interv. 2014 Sep 17;7(10):1184–1193. doi: 10.1016/j.jcin.2014.04.024

Table 1.

Summary of methodological standard for the Preclinical Evaluation of Renal Sympathetic Denervation.

Category Methods Purpose
Biomarker Kidney norepinephrine levels (HPLC-MS/MS) Evaluation of the extent of renal sympathetic denervation
Macroscopic evaluation TTC staining of renal artery To assess the extent of arterial wall injury
Standard Light Microscopy and morphometry Semi-quantitative scoring of pathologic changes (grade 0 to grade 4): Nerve, renal artery, vein, arterioles, fat and collagen. To determine the extent of nerve injury, arterial and surrounding soft tissue injury
Quadrant analysis (0 to 4 quadrants) for nerve injury and soft tissue injury Evaluation of circumferential extent of injury
Depth of tissue injury (mm) Evaluation of therapeutic penetration
Immunohistochemistry Semi-quantitative scoring of intensity of immunostaining (score 0 to score 3) by anti-tyrosine hydroxylase Evaluation of the ability of the nerves to generate nor-epinephrine (functional nerve injury)