Fig. 1
Methodology of the QUEST-STEMI study. a Staining of thrombi with phosphotungstic acid (PTA); b Skyscan 1172 in the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture Heraklion, Greece; c Samples are placed in a specific vial which contains ethanol; d Samples are mounted on the specific head inside the micro-CT; e-f Representative samples of thrombi. The samples were stained using 0.3% PTA as a contrast agent and scanned using Skyscan 1172 at a voltage of 48 kV and 204μΑ without filtering for a full rotation of 360o. Images were acquired at a pixel size of 5.52 μm with a camera binning of 1 × 1. The projections were reconstructed with the use of the NRecon (Bruker, Kontich, Belgium) software; g Graphical abstract-overview of the methodology of the QUEST-STEMI study