Atherosclerotic plaque features

The hallmark feature in the pathophysiology of chronic stable angina is an established atherosclerotic plaque that impedes... 

Therefore, arteriosclerosis arteries are more prone to vasospastic events than are normal blood vessels [98]. One feature of this disease is the impairment of the relaxations mediated by the endothelium. This endothelial abnormality appears to be partially due to a defect of the metabolism of EDRF by Ox-LDL which accumulates within human atherosclerotic plaques. However, an enhanced production of the potent vasoconstrictor peptide endothelin could also participate in vasospasm. It has been reported that Ox-LDL induces the release of endothelin from human and porcine endothelium [126,127] and from bovine endothelium [128]. 

Angiogenesis is also a critical feature in the development of atherosclerotic plaques which, after rapture, can lead to myocardial infarction and stroke. Thus, the same a fSi integrin-targeted paramagnetic nanoparticles could be applied to detect atherosclerosis in rabbits [73]. Fibrin is another important target that is associated with... 

For studies of atherosclerosis, a method is needed to identify nonstenotic, lipid-rich coronary plaques that are likely to cause acute coronary events. NIR spectroscopy can provide information on the chemical composition of tissue. NIR spectroscopy can identify plaque composition and features associated with plaque vulnerability in human aortic atherosclerotic plaques obtained at the time of autopsy. In one study, 199 samples from 5 human aortic specimens were analyzed by NIR spectroscopy [35]. Features of plaque vulnerability were defined by histology as presence of lipid pool, thin fibrous cap (65 fim by ocular micrometry), and inflammatory cell infiltration. NIR spectroscopy sensitivity and specificity for histological features of plaque vulnerability were 90 and 93% for lipid pool, 77 and 93% for thin cap, and 84 and 89% for inflammatory cells, respectively. NIR spectroscopy can identify plaque composition and features associated with plaque vulnerability in postmortem human aortic specimens. These results support efforts to develop an NIR spectroscopy catheter system to detect vulnerable coronary plaques in living patients. 

Miller, A, Kong, C.-R, Volynskaya, Z., Dasari, R.R., Kramer, J.R., and Feld, M S. (2011) Multimodal spectroscopy detects features of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque. / Biomed. Opt, 16, 011009. 

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