AUTHOR=Callewaert Bram , Gsell Willy , Himmelreich Uwe , Jones Elizabeth A. V. TITLE=Q-VAT: Quantitative Vascular Analysis Tool JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine VOLUME=10 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cardiovascular-medicine/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1147462 DOI=10.3389/fcvm.2023.1147462 ISSN=2297-055X ABSTRACT=

As our imaging capability increase, so does our need for appropriate image quantification tools. Quantitative Vascular Analysis Tool (Q-VAT) is an open-source software, written for Fiji (ImageJ), that perform automated analysis and quantification on large two-dimensional images of whole tissue sections. Importantly, it allows separation of the vessel measurement based on diameter, allowing the macro- and microvasculature to be quantified separately. To enable analysis of entire tissue sections on regular laboratory computers, the vascular network of large samples is analyzed in a tile-wise manner, significantly reducing labor and bypassing several limitations related to manual quantification. Double or triple-stained slides can be analyzed, with a quantification of the percentage of vessels where the staining's overlap. To demonstrate the versatility, we applied Q-VAT to obtain morphological read-outs of the vasculature network in microscopy images of whole-mount immuno-stained sections of various mouse tissues.