Table 1.
Brief description of the case studies presenting the imaging properties and the advantages and disadvantages of each technique.
| Biological | Biomedical | Advantages | Disadvantages | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case Study 1 (Section 3.1.1) |
Case Study 2 (Section 3.1.2) |
Case Study 3 (Section 3.2.1) |
Case Study 4 (Section 3.2.2) |
Case Study 5 (Section 3.2.3) |
||||
| Micro-CT | pixel size (μm) | 2–13.79 μm | 0.98 μm | 4 μm | 2.9 μm | 13.8 μm | ||
| sample preparation | only for egg capsules (fixation and staining—4 days) | no | yes (fixation and staining—2 days) | yes (fixation and staining—2 days) | no | internal specimen microstructure, measurements of specimen characteristics (volume, surface, density, thickness, porosity), reliable, reproducible, non-destructive | time consuming for high-resolution datasets, staining might alter specimen characteristics, large dataset size | |
| visualisation of features | external and internal shell and egg structures | external and internal structure | thrombotic characteristics | heart | facial deformities and fused sutures on the skull | |||
| destructive | potential alterations in egg capsules due to staining procedure | no | potential alterations in thrombotic measurements due to staining procedure | potential alterations in heart structure due to staining procedure | no | |||
| imaging duration | 2.5–6 h | 3 h | 1.5 h | 2 h | 2 h | |||
| OM | magnification | 8–25× | 40–60× | 200× | 1× | |||
| sample preparation | no | no | yes (fixation and staining—1 day) | yes (fixation, staining and removal of remaining tissues—35–40 days) | no pre-treatment, original colours of the specimen, fast if no sample preparation is needed, no limitations for shape or geometries, application to in vivo trials, non-invasive | very thin focus area, destruction of the sample in case that the internal view is needed, time consuming for histological examination | ||
| visualisation of features | only external shell and egg structures | external structure | presence of different cell types | sutures | ||||
| destructive | no | yes (cross-sections from specific parts) | yes | yes | ||||
| imaging duration | immediate | immediate | immediate | immediate | ||||
| CLSM | magnification | 60× | 63× | availability of antibodies, photo-bleaching by laser power, destructive method | ||||
| sample preparation | yes (fixation, incubation with antibodies—2.5 h) | yes (fixation, incubation with antibodies—6–7 days) | study of organelles, visualisation at the cellular level, studying cellular and molecular events, can be applied to in vivo studies | |||||
| visualisation of features | organelles in selected tissues | proliferation, apoptosis, and cell type | ||||||
| destructive | yes (young flies were dissected, cardiac tubes or muscle tissues were isolated) | yes | ||||||
| imaging duration | immediate | 4–6 h | ||||||
| SEM | magnification | 85–600× | ||||||
| sample preparation | yes (dehydration and sputter coating with 20 nm thick gold—1 day) | High-resolution images with great focus depth | only surface images, destructive method | |||||
| visualisation of features | ||||||||
| destructive | yes (fixation, dehydration, sputtering) | |||||||
| imaging duration | immediate | |||||||