Improved methods are needed to identify the vulnerable coronary plaques responsible for acute myocardial infraction or sudden cardiac death. We describe a method for characterizing the structure and biomechanical properties of atherosclerotic plaques based on speckle pattern fluctuations. Near-field speckle images were acquired from five human aortic specimens ex vivo. The speckle decorrelation. time constant varied significantly for vulnerable aortic plaques (tau = 40 ms) versus stable plaques (tau = 400 ms) and normal aorta (tau = 500 ms). These initial results indicate that different atherosclerotic plaque types may be distinguished by analysis of temporal and spatial speckle pattern fluctuations. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America. [References: 18]
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