Using multimodal femtosecond CARS imaging to determine plaque burden in luminal atherosclerosis

Luminal atherosclerosis imaging was demonstrated by multimodal femtosecond CARS microscopy (MM-CARS). Using a myocardial infarction-prone rabbit model of atherosclerosis, this study demonstrated the utility of multimodal CARS imaging in determining atherosclerotic plaque burden through two types of image analysis procedures. Firstly, multimodal CARS images were evaluated using a signal-intensity parameter based on intensity changes derived from the multi-channel data (e. g. TPEF, SHG and CARS) to classify plaque burden within the vessel. Secondly, the SHG images that mainly correspond to collagen fibrils were evaluated using a texture analysis model based on the first-order statistical (FOS) parameters of the image histogram. Correlation between FOS parameters of collagen images with atherosclerosis plaque burden was established. A preliminary study of using spectroscopic CARS in identifying the different lipid components within the plaque was also discussed.