Patent ID: 8774905

Claim:
A method for detecting lipid cores underneath thin fibrous caps (LCTC) and thin-cap fibroatheromas (TCFA) in a subject, the method comprising: identifying during an angioscopy examination of the subject a plurality of coronary or arterial plaques that form a plaque deposit in the subject: measuring location, morphology, size and thickness of the plaque deposit using angioscopy image data and a quantitative colorimetric method; applying the quantitative colorimetric method to measure coronary or arterial plaque color comprising L*a*b* color space determinants visible in a white light to the human eye within a L*a*b* color space during the angioscopy examination, wherein angioscopically-detected values of red color and yellow color are converted to the L*a*b* color space determinants; and detecting the lipid cores underneath the LCTC and TCFA in the subject having the value of a* greater than 0 and the value of b* greater than or equal to 23 in the plaque deposit of the subject, or if the value of a* is greater than or equal to 15 and the value b* is greater than 0 in the plaque deposit of the subject and L* having a value of 35 to 90.