Spectroscopic characterisation of carotid atherosclerotic plaque by laser induced fluorescence
N Anastassopoulou1, B Arapoglou, P Demakakos
1National Technical University of Athens, Physics Department, Greece.
Background And Objective:
An effort has been made to distinguish the composition of carotid atherosclerotic plaques (CAP) from patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy, by laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy.
Study Design/Materials And Methods:
Different excitation wavelengths were used: 476, 488, and 458 nm of a continuous wave krypton/argon ion laser, and 337 nm of a pulsed nitrogen laser. Twenty-three CAP samples from different patients were investigated and several spectra from each plaque were obtained.
Results:
Results were crossed-examined with conventional histologic techniques, which showed three areas of different composition on the pathologic samples: fibrous tissue, lipid constituents, and calcified plaque. Gaussian fittings were performed to reproduce the fluorescence spectra as a correlation of multiple Gaussian curves.
Conclusion:
The accuracy for discrimination of the heterogeneous composition of the atherosclerotic plaque is still limited, due to superposition of the fluorescence emission of various plaque components.
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