Researchers have developed a new intravascular imaging technique that could one day be used to detect coronary plaques that are likely to lead to a heart attack.
Researchers have developed a new intravascular imaging technique that could one day be used to detect coronary plaques that are likely to lead to a heart attack. Heart attacks are often triggered when an unstable plaque ruptures and then blocks a major artery that carries blood and oxygen to the heart.
“If unstable coronary plaques could be detected before they rupture, pharmacological or other treatments could be initiated early to prevent heart attacks and save lives,” said research team leader Seemantini Nadkarni from the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Our new imaging technique represents a major step toward achieving this.”
In The Optical Society (OSA) journal Biomedical Optics Express, the researchers report a preclinical demonstration of their new intravascular laser speckle imaging (ILSI) technique in a living animal model. They show, for the first time, that ILSI can identify the distinct mechanical features of plaques that are most likely to rupture under physiological conditions of cardiac motion, blood flow and breathing.
Read more at: The Optical Society
