Cardiovascular disease is the most prevalent cause of death in the developed countries and most deaths are due to coronary atherosclerosis [1]. During the development of atherosclerosis, several stages can be distinguished including vulnerable plaque. This group of plaque has an inclination for erosion and rupture and is therefore of particular interest. Due to the inflammatory response of vulnerable plaque including an increased metabolism and thereby a locally increased temperature, it is possible to detect such warm cores by intracoronally temperature measurement under some prerequisitions. Temperature differences up to 2.2 K on the surface of carotid plaques have been measured [2], but the relation between plaque vulnerability, inflammatory response, temperature increase and possibility to detection by means of temperature measurement is far from fully perceived.

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