Effect of temperature and fixation on the optical properties of atherosclerotic tissue: a validation study of an ex-vivo whole heart cadaveric model.
Atherosclerotic plaque composition can be imaged using the optical attenuation coefficient derived from intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) data. The relation between optical properties and tissue type has been established on autopsy tissues. In this study, we validate an ex-vivo model for the effect of temperature and tissue fixation on optical parameters. We studied the optical attenuation of human coronary arteries at three temperatures, before and after formalin fixation. We developed an en-face longitudinal display of attenuation data of the OCT pullbacks. Using the unfixed, body-temperature condition image as a standard, and after extensive registration with other condition images, we quantify the differences in optical attenuation and the backscattered intensity. The results suggest that tissue fixation and temperature do not introduce systematic errors in studies of arterial optical properties.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Erasmus Medical Center, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Muthukaruppan
M
Gnanadesigan
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Erasmus Medical Center, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Gijs
G
van Soest
Bristol Heart Institute, Bristol, UK.
Stephen
S
White
Bristol Heart Institute, Bristol, UK.
Simon
S
Scoltock
Cardiovascular Diseases, University Hospitals Leuven, & Dept. of Cardiovascular Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium.
Giovanni J
GJ
Ughi
Bristol Heart Institute, Bristol, UK.
Andreas
A
Baumbach
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Erasmus Medical Center, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands ; Department of Imaging Science and Technology, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands.
Antonius Fw
AF
van der Steen
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Erasmus Medical Center, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Evelyn
E
Regar
Bristol Heart Institute, Bristol, UK.
Thomas W
TW
Johnson
(110.2960) Image analysis; (170.3010) Image reconstruction techniques; (170.3880) Medical and biological imaging; (170.4500) Optical coherence tomography