Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) affects an estimated 8.5 million people in the United States. PAD is caused by atherosclerosis, which is a narrowing of the arteries due to plaque build-up. Patients with a severe presentation of the disease often require a surgical intervention to reopen the arteries and restore blood flow to the affected areas. During the intervention, physicians often monitor the progress of the intervention using contrast angiography. The process requires a contrast agent and high radiation doses. Our lab has proposed the use of dynamic vascular optical spectroscopy (DVOS) as a non-invasive, non-iodizing method to track changes in the arteries during an intervention. In this preliminary study, we found that the DVOS signal changes in response to intervention techniques such as balloon inflations and deflations. For our trial subject, we saw on average a 19.5% change in total hemoglobin concentration (HbT) due to injection of a contrast agent prior to balloon inflation and on average a 26.6% change in HbT due to injection of a contrast agent after a sequence of balloon inflations and deflations. The data suggest that DVOS can monitor vascular health and blood perfusion in arteries in real-time during a surgical intervention.
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