Fig. 3

3D PCCT data set analysis of an altered pancreatic duct. Virtual sections from the X-ray tomogram of the biopsy punch from the virtual section number 42 (a, left) to a more distant virtual section number 760 (a, right) confirm the existence of altered gland formations (gf) in between the desmoplastic stroma (asterisks) as well as a star-like proliferating duct (pd) characterized by an altered epithelial morphology. Remarkably, very dense inclusions are observed within the lumina (hashtag). Red arrows in (a) indicate the displayed spatial direction of the virtual 2D tissue section. The star-like proliferating duct (pd) was semi-automatically segmented (b) through the whole volume, discriminating the lumen (green) and the epithelium (blue). The 3D reconstruction reveals the location of this duct within the biopsy volume from section 42 to the last traceable plane (b). The translucent layer marks the layer 760 in xz direction (b, right arrow). The angle of the segmented duct was virtually changed in order to evaluate a cross-section of the morphologically altered duct (c). Note, that the highly variable diameter of the lumen (c, star, green), caused mainly by the surrounding epithelium of varying height (arrows), indicates different epithelial proliferation rates in certain duct locations