Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects (NSERC partnered)

A novel intravascular imager technology of fatty acids in arteries responsible for heart disease and stroke will be developed. The imager consists of a catheter carrying combined photoacoustic and ultrasonic sources and detectors capable of scanning circumferentially (tomographically) the inside of an artery around a full circle. The catheter is able to move axially along the artery thereby generating cylindrical maps of the internal walls. Using parallel optical-to-ultrasound (photoacoustic) energy conversion and pure ultrasound detection "co-registration", the catheter imager will map the presence of fatty lipids responsible for coronary artery disease at an earlier stage than today's purely ultrasonic and purely optical imaging catheters. This technology can be very valuable for diagnosis and more effective treatment of coronary disease, the leading cause of adult death in developed nations with increasing prevalence worldwide.