New Cardiac Imaging Device Pioneered

At Mount Sinai School of Medicine, researchers have developed a method to use new multi-color CT technology in combination with gold nanoparticles to visualize atherosclerotic arteries.

Ruptures of atherosclerotic plaques are the cause of nearly 70 percent of heart attacks. These plaques are referred to as “vulnerable.” Atherosclerosis is considered to be an inflammatory process in which macrophages release enzymes that convert stable plaques to vulnerable plaques.

High-density lipoproteins (HDL) are the “good” cholesterol and are associated with lower risk of heart attack. At Mount Sinai, researchers encapsulated gold nanoparticles within HDL and injected them into mice. Using the multi-color CT, they saw that the HDL was targeting the macrophages that cause inflammation, therefore showing the location of plaques vulnerable to rupture.

Regular CT scans create grey images, while multi-color CT shows far better contrast to differentiate type and density of tissue. In this way, the new CT can show calcification (characteristic of plaque), iodine (used to identify stenoses) and the impact of the gold nanoparticles themselves.

Multi-color CT used with contrast agents such as iodine can yield better and earlier diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, and may also be beneficial in imaging other biological process and diseases.

This is article is interesting as it involves radiology, which is relevant to my major (RHEN) and useful in understanding and developing technology for our device design project.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100816110459.htm

Lainy Dromgoole, VTPP 434-501