Temperature Measurement of Advanced Murine Atherosclerotic Plaques

Ischaemic heart disease is most frequently caused by coronary atherosclerosis, of which the vulnerable plaque is one of the developmental stages. Rupture of a vulnerable plaque with superimposed thrombosis frequently leads to acute coronary syndromes. The major components of a vulnerable plaque are a lipid-rich, atheromatous core, and a thin fibrous cap with macrophage and macrophage infiltration (Schaar et al., 2004). After the first paper suggesting the possibility of thermographic detection of vulnerable plaques (Casscells et al., 1996), intracoronary thermography as a vulnerable plaque detection technique has been investigated. Increased metabolic activity of macrophages is suggested as the main reasons for the increased temperatures (ten Have et al., 2005).