Percutaneous intracoronary Raman spectroscopy

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Background

Rupture of coronary atherosclerotic plaque with subsequent thrombosis accounts for the majority of acute myocardial infarctions, one of the leading causes of death in the United States. While much remains to be understood about this disease, it is currently recognized that structural, biochemical, and molecular plaque features all play a role in the pathogenesis of plaque rupture. Significant progress has been made developing structural imaging methods to evaluate plaque morphology. At present,

Methods

Raman spectra were collected with a custom-built system which provided real-time data presentation (River Diagnostics BV, Model 2500 HPRM, modified). The excitation laser power was set to 38 mW at 670 nm such that the spectral coverage included the wavenumber region ranging from 2600 to 3100 cm−1. All measurements were performed with a 3.2-F side-viewing, single optical fiber, low-pressure eccentric balloon catheter that was built in-house. Inflation of the balloon expanded the catheter to ∼7.5

Results

Interpretable Raman spectra were obtained in all cases when averaged over 1 s, and higher quality data were obtained with 10 s averaging. In both vessels there was typically a clear difference in spectra between the inflated and deflated balloon cases, with the latter being dominated by signal from the blood. Spectra obtained with the inflated balloon in the subclavian artery were generally dominated by protein from the arterial wall; however, in some cases signal from the blood was present due

Conclusion

We have demonstrated the first percutaneous in vivo intracoronary collection of Raman spectra. In addition, the spectra were collected in a blood field by providing gentle apposition to the arterial wall. Minor modifications to the system and catheters will result in several orders of magnitude improvement in signal quality, allowing a significant decrease in sampling time. Future investigations will employ a modified catheter which allows simultaneous sampling of multiple circumferential

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