Atherosclerosis is a common and complex disease of the arteries responsible for many causes of cardiovascular disease such as myocardial infarction, angina, stroke and leg ischemia.

The condition results from chronic inflammation and the buildup of plaque under the inner lining (intima) of arteries that swells into the lumen of the arteries.
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         As this accumulation takes place gradually, over many years, atherosclerosis is difficult to diagnose accurately and remains asymptomatic until a pathological event.       

The understanding of atherosclerosis has undergone a revolution in the past decade. Originally thought as “a cholesterol-fuelled, plumbing problem”, atherosclerosis is now understood as a chronic immune inflammatory disease. This paradigm shift points to the need for new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Aterovax's sPLA2 Activity Test is the first diagnostic tool resulting from this major step forward in knowledge.

Understanding role of inflammation in atherosclerosis's development

Increasing inflammation, with evolving severity of atherosclerotic process:

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Columns of histopathologic sections demonstrate normal vessel, pathologic intimal thickening, early and late fibroatheroma,thin-cap fibroatheroma, and plaque rupture. First 2 rows represent sections in low and high magnification. Corresponding sections in last 2 rows are immunohistochemical staining with CD68 antibody (color reaction, brown), representing magnitude of inflammation. Note increasing severity of inflammation. It is hypothesized that there would be a threshold value for noninvasive detection of inflammation by either 18F-FDG or AA5 imaging and that positive scan results will represent instability. PIT 5 pathologic intimal thickening; FA 5 fibroatheroma; TCFA 5 thin-cap fibroatheroma.

Reprinted by permission of the Society of Nuclear Medicine from:
Tahara N, Imaizumi T, Virmani R, and Narula J. Clinical Feasibility of Molecular Imaging of Plaque
Inflammation in Atherosclerosis. J Nucl Med. 2009; 50(3): 331-334. Figure 1