Functional Interfaces

Visualization as well as characterization of inner arterial plaque depositions is of vital diagnostic interest, especially for the early recognition of vulnerable plaques. Established clinical techniques provide valuable visual information, but can not deliver information about the chemical composition of individual plaques. Here, we employ Raman-probe spectroscopy to characterize the plaque compositions of arterial walls on a rabbit model in vivo, using a miniaturized filtered probe with one excitation and 12 collection fibers integrated in a 1 mm sleeve. Rabbits were treated with a cholesterol enriched diet. The methodology can improve the efficiency of animal experiments and shows great potential for applications in cardiovascular research. In order to further characterize the plaque depositions visually, CARS microscopy images have been acquired and are compared with the Raman-probe results.