The master thesis of Johanna Maria Ticar reveals high-resolution insights into the myocardial
microstructure and illustrates that cardiac muscle fibers are straight running in parallel
with one preferred fiber direction however deposits such as fat seem to compromise the
regular and compact structure. Second harmonic generation imaging combined with optical tissue
clearing is an accurate method for determining the three-dimensional muscle fiber and sheet
orientations and hence allows the calculation of fiber rotation throughout the ventricle wall.
