Survey of the UV and Visible Spectroscopic Properties of Normal and Atherosclerotic Human Artery Using Fluorescence EEMs

Abstract

Fluorescence spectroscopy has been recently explored as a new technique for the diagnosis of disease in human tissue [1–5]. Several groups have demonstrated that normal and atherosclerotic human artery can be differentiated on the basis of their fluorescence emission spectra [1, 3, 4]. Many have suggested that this represents a new technique for determining the histochemical composition of atherosclerotic plaque in vivo and potentially guiding laser angiosurgery catheters [1, 3, 4]. Similarly, it has been shown that neoplastic tissue can be discriminated from non-neoplastic tissue, in a variety of organs, including the colon [2] and lung [5], on the basis of tissue fluorescence emission spectra. Several workers have suggested that this technique may ultimately improve current endoscopic methods for diagnosing neoplasia, as it potentially can be used to identify small areas of neoplastic transformation difficult to detect visually with current endoscopes [2,6].