Heartbeat Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a manifestation of atherosclerosis, a systemic inflammatory disease of the arteries that causes the formation of plaques in the artery walls. Different plaques may give rise to different symptoms: a gradual narrowing (stenosis) of the vessel by growth of a fibrous or calcific plaque will cause chest pain (due to cardiac ischemia) upon exertion, a condition called stable CAD. Sudden onset of chest pain, or chest pain at rest, is a symptom of unstable CAD or acute coronary syndrome (ACS), which is associated with thrombus formation on plaques, mostly due to rupture of a lipid-core lesion. The most severe form of this disease may lead to a myocardial infarction or heart attack.