10 Mar New Combination Coronary Imaging Technique Identified Dangerous Plaques
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Gary Tearney
Guillermo J. Tearney, MD PhD
Mike and Sue Hazard Family MGH Research Scholar
Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School
Wellman Center for Photomedicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Tearney: In this study, we investigated a new, advanced catheter-based imaging technology for identifying the coronary plaques that may potentially precipitate heart attack. The new technique combines intracoronary OCT, that provides images of tissue emicrostructure with near-infrared autofluorescence (NIRAF) that informs on the molecular/biological characteristics of plaque.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Dr. Tearney: Our main findings were that:
1) Intracoronary OCT-NIRAF is safe and feasible in patients
2) NIRAF was elevated focally in portions of the coronary artery that contained high risk OCT features, and
3) The findings are suggestive that NIRAF may be a new imaging feature that is indicative of inflammation in human coronary lesions in vivo.
MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Dr. Tearney:
1) Intracoronary OCT-NIRAF is a new multimodality imaging technology that provides simultaneously acquired and co-localized images of microstructure (OCT) and biological/molecular information (NIRAF).
2) Intracoronary OCT-NIRAF is safe and feasible in patients.
3) NIRAF was elevated in certain locations in plaques with a high-risk structural phenotype, suggesting that NIRAF is a complementary signal that may be related to inflammation.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Dr. Tearney:
1) Confirm these results in a larger cohort of patients.
2) Determine the molecular origins of the NIRAF signal.
MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Dr. Tearney: This work is important also because, to our knowledge, it is the first demonstration of combined OCT and fluorescence measurements in the coronary arteries of living human patients. This research additionally sets the stage for combining OCT with exogenous fluorescence for targeted molecular imaging in the future.
MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.
Citation:
Giovanni J. Ughi, Hao Wang, Edouard Gerbaud, Joseph A. Gardecki, Ali M. Fard, Ehsan Hamidi, Paulino Vacas-Jacques, Mireille Rosenberg, Farouc A. Jaffer, Guillermo J. Tearney. Clinical Characterization of Coronary Atherosclerosis With Dual-Modality OCT and Near-Infrared Autofluorescence Imaging. JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging, 2016; DOI:10.1016/j.jcmg.2015.11.020
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Guillermo J. Tearney, MD PhD (2016). New Combination Coronary Imaging Technique Identified Dangerous Plaques MedicalResearch.com
Last Updated on March 10, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD