# Hypersensitive detection of single millimeter vascular emboli from adhesive in vivo

## TL;DR

A new CT imaging method detects tiny adhesive emboli in blood vessels, improving the safety of surgical adhesives.

## Contribution

A non-invasive CT-visualized method using BiOCl-doped surgical adhesive for detecting single millimeter emboli in vivo.

## Key findings

- BiOCl-BioGlue enables dynamic CT monitoring of emboli location and degradation for 42 days.
- Pulmonary emboli as small as 1.2 mm are successfully detected using spectral CT imaging.
- The method is unaffected by calcifications and improves biosafety in preclinical models.

## Abstract

Surgical adhesives are widely used in clinical practice but pose a significant risk of severe vascular embolism complications. Nevertheless, there are currently no non-invasive direct methods for precise detection of detached emboli. Herein, we show a CT-visualized method for hypersensitive detection of single millimeter vascular emboli from adhesive in vivo by simply doping BiOCl into surgical adhesives. As proof of concept, BiOCl-BioGlue with excellent CT imaging capability is fabricated and applied to repair ruptured vessels and liver in male rats. The location, morphology, and degradation process of BiOCl-BioGlue can be dynamically monitored by CT imaging for 42 days, and pulmonary emboli caused by BiOCl-BioGlue, with sizes as small as 1.2 mm, are successfully detected. Additionally, the high K-edge of Bi enables precise detection of pulmonary emboli in spectral CT imaging, unaffected by confounding calcifications. The proposed non-invasive detection strategy for adhesive emboli significantly enhances the biosafety of surgical adhesives.

A CT-visualized method is developed for hypersensitive detection of single millimeter vascular emboli derived from surgical adhesives by simply doping BiOCl into the adhesive matrix, which enables a significant improvement in the biosafety of surgical adhesives in preclinical models.