Abstract
Blood flow goes through arteries in a laminar fashion (normal blood flow). When fatty tissue is deposited in the inner layers of the vessel, the volume of the wall increases, creating atheroma, or plaque. When this plaque creates a significant occlusion (large amount of plaque) of the blood flow, the cardiac cells are lacking oxygen, which causes death to the cells. Cardiac Troponins, specifically troponin I, is found in the heart cells. An increase in troponins is a reliable marker that muscle cells are dying (myocardial infarction) because troponins are leaked out of cells and into the bloodstream. In order to accurately determine the culprit vessel or plaque that might provoke a myocardial infarction we will compare the outcome of fusion imaging with Intravascular Ultrasound (I-VUS) in order to establish which instrument is more accurate. In doing so, this will allow us to find and locate the culprit vessel responsible for the infarction and differentiate the culprit vessel and non culprit vessel. This will enable us to define vulnerable plaque in-vivo and create an algorithm of fusion imaging for patient's myocardial infarction or vulnerable plaque.