Calibration of scanning acoustic microscopy for the differentiation between unstable and stable atherosclerotic plaques by X-ray fluorescence imaging

TL;DR

This paper presents a calibration method for scanning acoustic microscopy using X-ray fluorescence imaging to accurately differentiate between stable and unstable atherosclerotic plaques, aiming to improve non-invasive cardiovascular diagnostics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel calibration approach for acoustic microscopy utilizing high-resolution X-ray fluorescence imaging as a gold standard.

Findings

X-ray fluorescence imaging provides high-resolution calcium maps of plaques.

Calibration improves the differentiation between stable and unstable plaques.

Potential for non-invasive cardiovascular disease diagnostics.

Abstract

Although cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally, non-invasive and inexpensive diagnostic tools for the identification of associated unstable atherosclerotic plaques are not yet available. Scanning acoustic microscopy offers a high potential to fill this critical gap in patient care. However, convincing validation and calibration of this technique requires high resolution maps of Ca concentrations of atherosclerotic plaques. Here, we demonstrate that synchrotron radiation-based X-ray fluorescence imaging with micrometer spatial resolution can provide such a gold standard.