Assessment of vulnerable coronary plaque by intravascular elasticity imaging

Plaque rupture is regarded as one of the main causes of acute coronary syndromes. To prevent plaque rupture and guide a pharmacological treatment, it is important to image the weak (fragile) part of atherosclerotic plaque. Our preliminary experiments revealed the feasibility of a strain image using IVUS (intravascular ultrasound) to discriminate between different types of plaque. For the purpose of obtaining finer and more stable assessments of vulnerable plaque under interventional conditions, we propose a strain power image as an index of tissue deformability by analyzing the time-varying strain profiles obtained from the IVUS data. We also conducted an in vivo test with a new acquisition device that allows us to capture a large scale of RF data. The results demonstrate that strain power imaging has the potential to evaluate the vulnerability of plaques.