Ultrasound device targets arterial plaque

Plaque builds up in people’s arteries as they age and some types are deemed ‘vulnerable,’ making them more likely to detach from the artery wall and cause heart attack or stroke.

‘Existing state-of-the-art technologies are capable of determining if plaque is present in the arteries, but can’t tell whether it’s vulnerable. And that makes it difficult to assess a patient’s risk,’ said Dr. Paul Dayton, co-author of a paper on the new device and professor in the joint biomedical engineering department at NC State and Chapel Hill. ‘Our goal was to develop something that could effectively identify which plaques are vulnerable.’

There are two ultrasound techniques that can help identify vulnerable plaques, but both depend on the use of contrast agents called ‘microbubbles.’

The first technique is to identify vasa vasorum in arteries, namely clusters of small blood vessels that often infiltrate arterial plaque, and which are considered indicators that a plaque is vulnerable. When microbubbles are injected into an artery, they follow the flow of the blood. If vasa vasorum are present, the microbubbles will flow through these blood vessels as well, effectively highlighting them on ultrasound images.