Microwave intravascular detection of vulnerable plaque

Diseased arterial tissue often includes significant fatty and calcium deposits. Assessing the electrical properties at microwave frequencies of these abnormalities may provide considerable insight into the characteristics of particular segments of tissue because of the considerable contrast in properties between low water-content tissue such as cholesterol and calcium deposits with respect to normal high water-content tissue. We present measured property data for freshly excised aorta tissue to identify the range of properties for possible tissue pathologies that might actually be encountered and also present preliminary data from a CW backscatter analysis to assess whether high contrast abnormalities can be detected with a simple prototype antenna. The results and future challenges of this approach will be discussed in the text.