Photo-acoustic imaging of coronary arteries with polymer optical fibers

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the most common types of heart disease which happens when the arteries that supply blood to heart muscle become hardened and narrowed. This is caused by the building of cholesterol plaques on the inner walls of arteries. The gradual growth of plaques cause less blood to flow through the arteries hence the heart muscle can't get the blood or oxygen it needs. Worse, a plaque can suddenly rupture. As a result, blood clot over the rapture and suddenly cut off the hearts’ blood supply, causing permanent heart dama ge or stroke [1]. Photo-acoustic imaging is useful for detection of plaques for prevention of rupture of vulnerable plaques. These vulnerable plaques in the arteries can be distinguished using photo-acoustic imaging based on lipid accumulation with different characteristics of optical absorption. The basic principle of this imaging technique relies on exposing lipids to a laser capable of inducing photo-acoustic effect and a sensor affected by the induced pressure. Polymer optical fibre Bragg grating and Fabry-Perot sensors will be developed for detection of photo-acoustic signal in collaboration of Optoelectronics and Laser technology group, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid under the TRIPOD project. TRIPOD (http://www.tripod-itn.eu) is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network located in the field of optical fibre sensors - an area where Europe has developed internationally competitive research and commercial activity. The aim is to significantly extend the range of appli cation of optical fibre grating sensors by developing a mature version of the technology in polymer optical fibres and thereby increase European competitiveness.