Characterization of acrylic polyamide plastic embolization particles in vitro and in human tissue sections by light microscopy, infrared microspectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis.

Vascular embolization is a well-established practice for the treatment of tumors and vascular lesions. Rounded beads (microspheres) of various materials (collagen, dextran and trisacryl-polymer-gelatin) were developed to solve problems encountered with earlier versions of embolic material. We performed histochemistry, Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis on two uterine and one hepatic specimen with unidentified intravascular foreign material, and examined a reference embolization product for comparison.