Ex vivo Characterization of Atherosclerosis using Intravascular ...

Ex vivo Characterization of Atherosclerosis using Intravascular Photoacoustic Imaging Shriram Sethuraman 1 , James H. Amirian 2 , Silvio H. Litovsky 3 , Richard W. Smalling 2 and Stanislav Y. Emelianov 1 1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station C0800, Austin, TX 78712 USA 2 Division of Cardiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX 77030 USA 3 Department of Pathology, University of Alabama Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35249 USA emelian@mail.utexas.edu Abstract: The assessment of plaque composition is one of the important
steps in the interventional management of atherosclerosis. The difference in
the optical absorption between the arterial wall and plaque constituents
could be utilized to obtain high resolution photoacoustic images. Therefore,
intravascular photoacoustic (IVPA) imaging has the potential to play a
major role in the detection and differentiation of atherosclerotic lesions.
Using a rabbit model of atherosclerosis, we performed ex vivo imaging
studies to evaluate the ability of IVPA imaging to detect the presence of
inflammation in the plaque. Specifically, the difference in the magnitude of
the photoacoustic response from the free lipids, macrophage foam cells,
blood and the rest of the arterial wall were used in detecting the fibro-
cellular inflammatory plaque. The constituents identified in the IVPA
images were confirmed by the results from histology.

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