Detection of Vulnerable Atherosclerotic Plaque

Abstract

Heart attacks are the cause for the majority of deaths in the industrialized world. The underlying cause of most of these deaths is the rupture of vulnerable plaque. As of this day, no widely accepted clinical tool exists for detecting plaques that are prone to rupture, although several techniques are being investigated. This thesis gives an overview of detection modalities that have been proposed for detecting vulnerable plaque with special emphasis on three methods, diffuse reflection spectroscopy, thermography and multiphoton microscopy.