Basic study for diagnosing blood vessel plaque employing ultrasonic velocity-change imaging in combination with near-infrared illumination

Abstract

It is important to detect unstable blood vessel plaques at an early stage to prevent their detachment and subsequent myocardial or brain infarctions. The instability of such plaques depends on the size and distribution of the internal lipid core. We propose a method for identifying lipid domains by changes in the ultrasound propagation velocity after warming with a near-infrared laser. First, we demonstrate that the most effective warming of fatty tissue to induce ultrasonic velocity changes is with a 935-nm laser. Next, a compliant blood vessel phantom containing an internal lipid domain was constructed and attached to a pulsatile pump. Experiments showed that the lipid domain could be identified with ultrasonic velocity-change imaging even in the presence of flow pulsation. We submit that ultrasonic velocity-change imaging under optical illumination may be an effective technique for diagnosing the presence of blood vessel plaques.