VasoTracker is a collection of open source tools for studying vascular physiology. We started off with a simple bath for pressure myography, but we are constantly working on new things. So far, our collection includes: a pressure myograph, diameter tracking software, temperature controller, and a pressure monitor.
Open Source Pressure Myography
Pressure myography is the gold standard for measuring blood vessel function. These systems allow us to study the effects of drugs and other compounds on arteries, veins, and other vessels. The technique also allow an evaluation of blood vessel responses to mechanical stimuli, such as increases in pressure or flow. So whether your lab is interested in assessing smooth muscle cell contraction or endothelium-dependent vasodilation, the pressure myograph is an essential piece of equipment.
A while ago, we wanted to set up a new pressure myograph (check us out here). We knew that there are a number of different commercial myograph packages available. However, the cost of even the most primitive systems took us by surprise. A little frustrated, and unwilling to part with so much money, we decided to develop our own, VasoTracker.
The VasoTracker pressure myograph is robust and it works very well. Best of all, the complete system cost us less than 10% of the equivalent from a leading commercial suppliers (we won’t say who!). We thought that others might also like to benefit from VasoTracker, so we decided to make everything (our hardware designs, our software, and instructions for setting everything up) freely available. It is also open source, which means that we have documented the system in detail and users are free to modify it in any way.
We announced the birth of the VasoTracker pressure myograph in Frontiers in Physiology. More details on our system can be found on our here.
Live Diameter Tracking Software
In pressure myography, the main physiological readout of artery function is diameter. The system uses video microscopy techniques to track the diameter of pressurized blood vessels. We wrote our own diameter tracking software. And we are very proud of it. You can find more details here.
Offline Diameter Tracking Software
Sometimes we just record data, and worry about analyzing it later. If this sounds like you, you might want to take a look at VasoTrackerOA (OA stands for offline analyzer). VasoTrackerOA is a piece of software that loads in video files (tiff stacks, avi or wmv files) and measures diameter. We have tested it on a variety of data from pressure myography, vascular ultrasound, and fluorescence imaging experiments. Details are here.
The video below shows our VasoTracker software in action. Blue lines show the outer diameter of the artery. Red lines show the inner diameter. Check out our software page for more details.