AI Article Synopsis

  • Combined cross-polarization optical coherence tomography (CP OCT) and non-linear microscopy techniques are used to study collagen and elastin in atherosclerosis, focusing on identifying vulnerable plaques.
  • CP OCT enhances visualization of tissue structure by revealing birefringence and cross-scattering, though these features can sometimes lead to ambiguous interpretations.
  • The findings contribute to minimally invasive methods for characterizing and monitoring various stages of atherosclerosis, including misleading polarization artifacts in imaging that may not reflect true tissue characteristics.

Article Abstract

We combined cross-polarization optical coherence tomography (CP OCT) and non-linear microscopy based on second harmonic generation (SHG) and two-photon-excited fluorescence (2PEF) to assess collagen and elastin fibers and other vascular structures in the development of atherosclerosis, including identification of vulnerable plaques, which remains an important clinical problem and imaging application. CP OCT's ability to visualize tissue birefringence and cross-scattering adds new information about the microstructure and composition of the plaque. However its interpretation can be ambiguous, because backscattering contrast may have a similar appearance to the birefringence related fringes. Our results represent a step towards minimally invasive characterization and monitoring of different stages of atherosclerosis, including vulnerable plaques. CP OCT image of intimal thickening in the human coronary artery. The dark stripe in the cross-polarization channel (arrow) is a polarization fringe related to the phase retardation between two eigen polarization states. It is histologically located in the area of the lipid pool, however this stripe is a polarization artifact, rather than direct visualization of the lipid pool.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jbio.201500223DOI Listing

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