title: Diagnosis of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques by time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy and ultrasound imaging.
abstract: In this study, time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy (TR-LIFS) and ultrasonography were applied to detect vulnerable (high-risk) atherosclerotic plaque. A total of 813 TR-LIFS measurements were taken from carotid plaques of 65 patients, and subsequently analyzed using the Laguerre deconvolution technique. The investigated spots were classified by histopathology as thin, fibrotic, calcified, low-inflamed, inflamed and necrotic lesions. Spectral and time-resolved parameters (normalized intensity values and Laguerre expansion coefficients) were extracted from the TR-LIFS data. Feature selection for classification was performed by either analysis of variance (ANOVA) or principal component analysis (PCA). A stepwise linear discriminant analysis algorithm was developed for detecting inflamed and necrotic lesion, representing the most vulnerable plaques. These vulnerable plaques were detected with high sensitivity (>80%) and specificity (>90%). Ultrasound (US) imaging was obtained in 4 carotid plaques in addition to TR-LIFS examination. Preliminary results indicate that US provides important structural information of the plaques that could be combined with the compositional information obtained by TR-LIFS, to obtain a more accurate diagnosis of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Biomed. Eng., Univ. California Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Jo
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Papaioannou
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Fishbein
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Beseth
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Dorafshar
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reil
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Freischlag
authors.forename: K K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Shung
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marcu
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*