ABSTRACT
Plaque composition is a major determinant of the risk of future clinical events, of which plaque rupture is the most common. Intravascular photoacoustic imaging (IVPA) has the potential to fully characterize lesion vulnerability by imaging both plaque structure and composition. It is a natural extension of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) that adds tissue type specifi city to the images. Like near-infrared refl ection spectroscopy (NIRS), it utilizes differences in the optical absorption spectra of different tissues to differentiate plaque components that are associated with vulnerability from those associated with stability. IVPA has a distinct advantage over NIRS in that it is an imaging modality; it uses the acoustic time-of-fl ight to create depth resolution as in IVUS.
