The progression of atherosclerosis involves complex changes in the structure, composition and biology of the artery wall. Currently, only anatomical plaque burden is routinely characterized in living patients, whereas compositional and biological changes are mostly inaccessible. However, anatomical imaging alone has proven to be insufficient for accurate diagnostics of the disease. Multispectral optoacoustic tomography offers complementary data to anatomical methods and is capable of imaging both tissue composition and, via the use of molecular markers, the biological activity therein. In this paper we review recent progress in multispectral optoacoustic tomography imaging of atherosclerosis with specific emphasis on intravascular applications. The potential capabilities of multispectral optoacoustic tomography are compared with those of established intravascular imaging techniques and current challenges on the road towards a clinically viable imaging modality are discussed.
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Fig. 1 Intravascular multispectral optoacoustic tomography of gold nanoparticle-bearing macrophages in rabbit aorta.
(A) Intravascular ultrasound image and (B) optoacoustic image acquired at 700 nm of an atherosclerotic rabbit aorta injected with gold nanoparticle-bearing macrophages. The arrows indicate the locations where injection was performed. (C) The normalized spectral optoacoustic response obtained in a small section on the aorta, where injection was performed. (D) Multispectral optoacoustic tomography image corresponding to the recovered spectrum overlaid onto the intravascular ultrasound image revealing the injected regions.