Diagnosis and Prompt treatment are the need today and enhanced technologies are helping this very precisely. In the Medical sphere, we at times find a lot of sudden and impulsive conditions which sometimes prove to be even dangerous. Heart Attack and Cardiac Arrests are unpredictable conditions that need a lot of attention nowadays.
Researchers today are out with a solution for this and have developed new intravascular imaging techniques that could optimistically be used to detect coronary plaques which could result in heart-related problems thereby blocking oxygen to the heart.
Experts have noted that unstable coronary plaques if detected earlier before they rupture, pharmacological or other treatments could be initiated early to prevent heart attacks and save lives. The new imaging technique certainly represents a major step toward achieving this. Reducing mortality from heart attacks in the general population requires a comprehensive screening strategy to identify at-risk patients and detect high-risk vulnerable plaques while they can be treated.
Researchers also evaluated the ability of their (Intravascular Laser Speckle Imaging) ILSI instrument to detect unstable plaques in a human coronary to swine xenograft model. This model system uses human coronary arteries that are sutured onto the beating heart of an anesthetized living pig. They assessed the mechanical properties of plaque inside the arteries by calculating the rate, or time constant, of fluctuations in the intensity of the speckle pattern and then compared their results with histopathological findings.
This new technique could be easily integrated with other intracoronary technologies such as optical coherence tomography or intravascular ultrasound to combine the mechanical findings.
The researchers plan to continue to evaluate the capability of their ILSI instrument for rapid assessment of the coronary vasculature in live animals. Once these preclinical studies are complete, they will assess the safety of the catheter for use in humans and then begin the process of gaining regulatory approval for clinical use.
By Mannu Mathew | Sub Editor | ELE Times
