Please click here to obtain permission to reproduce this image.

Click on image to view larger version.


Figure 5


Figure 5 The top panel shows the dissected intact aorta (left) and the opened aorta (right) showing yellow plaques. In the middle panel, (A) shows baseline ultrasound image of the aortic plaque (arrow), (B) shows microbubbles in the aortic lumen soon after intravenous injection, and (C) shows microbubble enhancement of the aortic plaque about 25 min after injection. The lumen is free of circulating microbubbles, and high mechanical index ultrasound imaging was done after 25 min. Note the brighter appearance of the plaque. The lower panel shows another example in which the figure on the left is the baseline image of a plaque and the figure on the right is color-coded, baseline-subtracted, videointensity image of the microbubble-enhanced atheroma.