Intravascular optical imaging technology for investigating the coronary artery.

There is an ever-increasing demand for new imaging methods that can provide additional information about the coronary wall to better characterize and stratify high-risk plaques, and to guide interventional and pharmacologic management of patients with coronary artery disease. While there are a number of imaging modalities that facilitate the assessment of coronary artery pathology, this review paper focuses on intravascular optical imaging modalities that provide information on the microstructural, compositional, biochemical, biomechanical, and molecular features of coronary lesions and stents. The optical imaging modalities discussed include angioscopy, optical coherence tomography, polarization sensitive-optical coherence tomography, laser speckle imaging, near-infrared spectroscopy, time-resolved laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and near-infrared fluorescence molecular imaging. Given the wealth of information that these techniques can provide, optical imaging modalities are poised to play an increasingly significant role in the evaluation of the coronary artery in the future.

对于能够提供有关冠状动脉壁的额外信息的新型成像方法的需求日益增长，以便更好地对高危斑块进行特征描述和分层，并指导冠状动脉疾病患者的介入和药物治疗。虽然有许多成像方式有助于评估冠状动脉病理，但这篇综述论文重点关注血管内光学成像方式，这些方式可提供有关冠状动脉病变和支架的微观结构、成分、生化、生物力学和分子特征的信息。所讨论的光学成像方式包括血管内窥镜检查、光学相干断层扫描、偏振敏感 - 光学相干断层扫描、激光散斑成像、近红外光谱、时间分辨激光诱导荧光光谱、拉曼光谱和近红外荧光分子成像。鉴于这些技术能够提供大量信息，光学成像方式有望在未来冠状动脉评估中发挥越来越重要的作用。