Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, 5045 emerging Technology Building, College Station, TX 77843, United States.
Atherosclerosis. 2012 Feb;220(2):394-401. doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2011.10.034. Epub 2011 Nov 15.
To investigate the potential of endogenous multispectral fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) for biochemical characterization of human coronary atherosclerotic plaques.
Endogenous multispectral FLIM imaging was performed on the lumen of 58 segments of postmortem human coronary artery. The fluorescence was separated into three emission bands targeting the three main arterial endogenous fluorophores (390±20 nm for collagen, 452±22.5 nm for elastin, and 550±20 for lipids). The fluorescence normalized intensity and average lifetime from each emission band was used to classify each pixel of an image as either "High-Collagen", "High-Lipids" or "Low-Collagen/Lipids" via multiclass Fisher's linear discriminant analysis.
Classification of plaques as either "High-Collagen", "High-Lipids" or "Low-Collagen/Lipids" based on the endogenous multispectral FLIM was achieved with a sensitivity/specificity of 96/98%, 89/99%, and 99/99%, respectively, where histopathology served as the gold standard.
The endogenous multispectral FLIM approach we have taken, which can readily be adapted for in vivo intravascular catheter based imaging, is capable of reliably identifying plaques with high content of either collagen or lipids.
研究内源性多光谱荧光寿命成像显微镜（FLIM）在人冠状动脉粥样硬化斑块生化特征分析中的应用潜力。
对 58 个人体冠状动脉节段的管腔进行内源性多光谱 FLIM 成像。将荧光分离成三个发射带，分别针对三种主要的动脉内源性荧光团（390±20nm 用于胶原蛋白、452±22.5nm 用于弹性蛋白和 550±20nm 用于脂质）。通过多类 Fisher 线性判别分析，使用来自每个发射带的荧光归一化强度和平均寿命，将图像中的每个像素分类为“高胶原蛋白”、“高脂质”或“低胶原蛋白/脂质”。
基于内源性多光谱 FLIM 将斑块分类为“高胶原蛋白”、“高脂质”或“低胶原蛋白/脂质”，其灵敏度/特异性分别为 96/98%、89/99%和 99/99%，其中组织病理学作为金标准。
我们采用的内源性多光谱 FLIM 方法，可方便地适应基于体内血管内导管的成像，能够可靠地识别富含胶原蛋白或脂质的斑块。
