atherosclerotic plaques with a large lipid core are a frequent cause of acute coronary syndromes . in 1993 near - infrared spectroscopy ( nirs )
was first used for atherosclerotic plaque imaging in an experimental animal model . in further ex vivo validation studies , nirs was found to accurately detect the lipid ( cholesterol ) content of human atherosclerotic plaques . in 2001 , a device prototype for intracoronary imaging was developed .
nirs provides a  chemogram  of the wall of the coronary artery and aims to detect lipid - rich plaques .
this nirs imaging system consists of a 3.2 french catheter ( infraredx , burlington , massachusetts , usa ) , a pullback , rotation device , and a dedicated console comprising a laser light source and a computer for algorithmic data processing .
the catheter comprises the rotating core with optical fibers that deliver and collect near - infrared light .
the light is emitted into a sample by the nir spectrometer , which subsequently measures the proportion of light that is returned over the range of optical wavelength .
the nirs system uses wave lengths of 800 to 2500  nm , converting a diffuse reflectance signal from an object to produce a spectrum .
subsequently , a computer analyzes the spectra and produces an algorithm to demonstrate a chemogram , that corresponds strongly to the lipid content   ( figs .  1 and 2).fig .
chemogram is shown detecting a colour map of the artery wall and indicates the location and intensity of coronary lipid content .
the horizontal - axis of the chemogram represents the pullback position and the vertical - axis represents the circumferential position in degrees ( 0360 ) . adapted and modified from : choi b et al .
eur heart j 2013;34:20472054fig . 2near - infrared spectroscopy ( nirs ) imaging indicates the lipid - core containing plaques are substantially more frequent in human coronary arteries with endothelial dysfunction . adapted and modified from : choi b et al .
chemogram is shown detecting a colour map of the artery wall and indicates the location and intensity of coronary lipid content .
the horizontal - axis of the chemogram represents the pullback position and the vertical - axis represents the circumferential position in degrees ( 0360 ) . adapted and modified from : choi b et al .
eur heart j 2013;34:20472054 near - infrared spectroscopy ( nirs ) imaging indicates the lipid - core containing plaques are substantially more frequent in human coronary arteries with endothelial dysfunction . adapted and modified from : choi b et al .
non - invasive imaging modalities including computed tomography or magnetic resonance have a limited resolution for precise plaque characterization .
therefore , catheter - based intravascular imaging methods , such as optical coherence tomography ( oct ) and nirs are highly valuable for detailed characterization of coronary atherosclerotic plaques , and have become available within the last years .
as described above , the nirs imaging system allowing for plaque assessment was carefully validated against atherosclerotic plaque autopsy specimens , and can nowadays be used in humans in vivo [ 7 , 8 ] .
nirs provides excellent spectra through blood and despite heart movement by using short scanning acquisition cycles .
the prospect study suggested , that a plaque burden of > 70  % , thin - cap fibroatheroma , and minimal luminal area 4.0  mm are predictors of overall long - term adverse cardiovascular events .
nirs has been established as a very accurate modality to characterize plaques with different lipid content .
madder et al . have shown , that target lesions responsible for acute coronary syndrome are frequently composed of lipid core plaque with a high lipid core burden index ( lcbi ) .
the presence of lipid core plaque may address the high - risk setting for subsequent coronary events , which needs to be further investigated in future studies [ 11 , 12 ] .
interestingly , both culprit and non - culprit lesions contained lipid core plaque more frequently in acs patients as compared to patients with stable angina .table 1intracoronary human nirs studiesstudyyearn * patientsaimconclusioncaplan j.d .
20066initial clinical experience in stable cadhigh quality nirs spectra can be obtained in patients in vivo 
 jacc 
 waxman , s. et .al 2009106to determine whether catheter - based nirs signals from coronaries of patients are similar to those from autopsy specimens and to assess initial safety of nirs devicespectral data were safely obtained by nirs similarly to those from autopsy specimens ; results demonstrated the feasibility of invasive detection of coronary lcp 
 jacc cardiovasc imaging 
 raghunathan , d. et .al 201130to examine whether an association exists between the presence and extent of lcp detected by nirs performed before pci with postprocedural mipci of lcp - positive lesions is associated with increased risk for mi after pci 
 am j cardiol 
 goldstein , j.a . et
201162to analyze the relationship between the presence of a large lcp detected by nirs and periprocedural minirs provides rapid , automated detection of extensive lcps that are associated with a high risk of periprocedural mi 
 circ cardiovasc interv 
 brugaletta , s. et .al 201131to compare the findings of nirs , ivus virtual histology and grayscale ivus obtained in matched coronary vessel segments of patients undergoing coronary angiographylarger plaque area by grayscale ivus was more often associated with either elevated percentage vh necrotic core or lcp by nirs 
 jacc cardiovasc imaging 
 madder , r.d .
201260to determine the frequency of lcp at target and remote sites in acs vs. stable anginatarget lesion responsible for acs were frequently composed of lcp ; lcps often were found in remote , non - target areas ; lcps were more common in patients with acs vs. stable angina patients 
 circ cardiovasc interv 
 pu , j. et .al 201266to evaluate nirs combined with ivus to provide novel information of human coronary plaque characterizationcombining nirs and ivus contributes to the plaque characterization 
 eur heart j 
 dixon , s.r . et .al
201269to compare the target lesion length using nirs combined with angiography vs. angiography alonepatients undergoing stent implantation could have lcp extending beyond the intended treatment margins as defined using qca alone 
 am j cardiol 
 brugaletta , s. et .al 2012202to explore a relationship between lipid plaque composition by nirs and angiographic severity of coronary artery diseasepatients with highest syntax score have a higher lcbi 
 jacc cardiovasc imaging 
 brilakis , e.s . et .al
20129to investigate whether use of an embolic protection device might prevent complications of lcp interventionsuse of embolic protection devices frequently resulted in embolized material retrieval after stenting of native coronary artery lesions with large lcp 
 catheter cardiovasc interv 
 brugaletta , s. et .al 201268to assess lcp distribution in nonculprit coronary arteries using nirslcp were mainly located in proximal portions of the lad and lcx , and more uniformly distributed in the rca ; 
 jacc cardiovasc imaging 
 kini , a.s .
201387to determine the impact of short - term intensive statine treatment on intracoronary plaque lipid contentshort - term intensive treatment with statine may reduce lipid content in obstructive coronary lesions 
 jacc 
 papayannis , a.c . et .al
20139to examine the association between presenting lcp ( by nirs ) and poststenting thrombus formation ( by oct)stenting large lcps may be associated with intrastent thrombus formation 
 catheter cardiovasc interv 
 townsend , j.c . et .al
2013100to investigate , whether coronary bifurcations have higher levels of intracoronary lcp than non - bifurcation regionscoronary bifurcations do not appear to have higher levels of intracoronary lcp than their comparative non - bifurcation regions 
 am j cardiol 
 maini , a. et .al 201377to evaluate lcp modification with coronary revascularization and its correlation with periprocedural miplaque modification may be performed successfully using interventional methods and can be evaluated with nirs ; axial plaque shifting is an acute prognostic marker for postprocedure mi 
 j inv cardiol 
 madder , r.d .
201320to describe nirs findings of culprit lesions in stemiplaques causing stemi have a high lcbi 
 jacc cardiovasc interv 
 zynda , t.k .
201378to determine if there was a relationship between angiographic lesion complexity and the extent of lcp identified by catheter - based nirsangiographic syntax score weakly correlated with lipid core burden index 
 catheter cardiovasc interv 
 choi , b.j .
201332to investigate whether coronary endothelial dysfunction is associated with the lcp in patients with early cadpatients with early cad and endothelial dysfunction had a higher lipid content in the vascular wall than patients with normal endothelial function ; 
 eur heart j 

 acs acute coronary syndrome ; cad coronary artery disease ; ivus intravascular ultrasound ; lad left artery descending ; lcbi lipid core burden index ; lcp lipid core - containing plaque ; lcx left circumflex artery ; mi myocardial infarction ; nirs near - infrared spectroscopy ; pci percutaneous coronary intervention ; qca quantitative coronary angiography ; rca right coronary artery ; stemi st - segment elevation myocardial infarction ; * number of patients intracoronary human nirs studies 
 acs acute coronary syndrome ; cad coronary artery disease ; ivus intravascular ultrasound ; lad left artery descending ; lcbi lipid core burden index ; lcp lipid core - containing plaque ; lcx left circumflex artery ; mi myocardial infarction ; nirs near - infrared spectroscopy ; pci percutaneous coronary intervention ; qca quantitative coronary angiography ; rca right coronary artery ; stemi st - segment elevation myocardial infarction ; * number of patients moreover , the study by pu et al . have recently supported the notion , that combining nirs with ivus can lead to a better plaque characterization . in addition , the three - dimensional reconstruction of coronary anatomy by angiocare software permits the identification of the lipid core plaque location and therefore the association among vessel geometry , endothelial shear stress and plaque composition .
the impact of short - term intensive statin treatment on a lipid plaque content has been investigated in a first study using nirs demonstrating changes in lipid composition .
several small studies have examined the potential impact of plaque evaluation by nirs for interventional coronary therapy [ 1618 ] .
it is well known , that 3 - 15  % of percutaneous coronary interventions ( pcis ) are complicated by periprocedural myocardial infarction ( mi ) due to the distal embolization by intraluminal thrombus and/or lipid - core plaque content [ 1921 ] .
first studies suggest that edge dissections or plaque disruptions may be more common when stents end within a lipid core plaque .
have documented , that in 16  % of lesions lipid core plaque may extend beyond the margins of the lesion as assessed by angiography .
this further points to limitations of qca alone in the evaluation of lesion- and subsequently stent length .
notably , the nirs - identified lipid core plaque has been described to be strongly associated with a high risk of thrombus formation or periprocedural myocardial infarction [ 17 , 18 , 24 ] .
nirs could be an interesting tool to investigate novel lipid - modulating and other cardiovascular therapies aiming to prevent adverse coronary events [ 17 , 23 ] .
however , a potential limitation of nirs may be its inability to assess the depth of a lipid core and the measurement of lipid volume has not been validated so far .
nirs may therefore be used in combination with other imaging modalities , such as ivus or oct . in this respect ,
a combined imaging catheter has recently been developed ( tvc imaging system , mc 7 system , infraredx , burlington , massachusetts , usa ) , combining both , an ivus probe and nirs light source .
this catheter is being used in the ibis-3 ( integrated biomarker and imaging study 3 ) to investigate the effects of rosuvastatin therapy on the lipid - rich coronary atherosclerotic plaques .
 acute coronary syndromes are frequently caused by  
 vulnerable  coronary plaques with a lipid - rich core . in 1993 
 near - infrared spectroscopy ( nirs ) was first used to detect the lipid ( cholesterol ) content of atherosclerotic plaques in an experimental animal study . 
 nirs was then carefully validated using human atherosclerotic plaques ( ex vivo ) , and has subsequently been developed for intracoronary imaging in humans , for which now an fda - approved catheter - based nirs system is available . 
 nirs provides a  chemogram  of the coronary artery wall and is used to detect lipid - rich plaques . using this technology , 
 recent studies have shown that lipid - rich plaques are very frequent in the culprit lesion of patients with an acute coronary syndrome , and are also common in non - culprit coronary lesions in these patients as compared to patients with stable coronary disease . 
 first studies are evaluating the impact of statin therapy on coronary nirs - detected lipid cores . 
 intracoronary nirs imaging represents a highly interesting method for coronary plaque characterization in humans and may become a valuable tool for the development of novel therapies aiming to impact on the biology of human coronary artery plaques , likely in combination with other intracoronary imaging techniques , such as optical coherence tomography . 
Introduction
NIRS Catheter
Experience Using NIRS for Coronary Plaque Imaging in Humans in Vivo
Implications for Guiding Therapy
Future Perspectives