Imaging Modalities to Identity Inflammation in an Atherosclerotic Plaque

Figure 6

Angioscopic and corresponding OCT images obtained in patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome. In the angioscopic images, plaque color is graded as white (A-1), light yellow (B-1), yellow (C-1), or intensive yellow (D-1). In the optical coherence tomography (OCT) images, a lipid pool (*) is characterized by a signal-poor region (A-2, B-2, C-2, and D-2). The fibrous cap is identified as a signal-rich region between the coronary artery lumen and inner border of lipid pool in the OCT image, and its thickness is measured at the thinnest part (A-3, B-3, C-3, and D-3; arrows). Reprinted with permission from Kubo et al. [76].