Patent Document ID: 9575074
Application ID: 14935994
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An apparatus for evaluating an atherosclerotic lesion at the initial or the intermediate stage, comprising: (i) a means of detecting plastin-2 in a subject; (ii) a means of detecting at least one type of protein selected from each of group (a), (b), (c), and (d) from among proteins shown in the following groups (a) to (d), in a subject: (a) cartilage oligomeric matrix protein, fibromodulin, fibronectin, and thrombospondin-4; (b) tenascin, CD5 antigen-like protein, properdin, Cb4-binding protein, fibrinogen beta chain, and fibrinogen gamma chain; (c) vitronectin, matrix metalloproteinase-2, and thrombospondin-1; and (d) membrane-bound form immunoglobulin mu chain C region, receptor-type tyrosine protein phosphatase C, immunoglobulin gamma-2B chain-C region, immunoglobulin J chain, immunoglobulin kappa chain C region, vascular cell adhesion protein 1, alpha-2-macroglobulin, ADAMTS-like protein 4, cathepsin B, carboxy peptidase-B2, complement factor-H, clusterin, collagen alpha-1 (XIV) chain, epidermal fatty acid-binding protein, mannose-binding lectin-associated serine protease-2, prothrombin, complement factor B, inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor-heavy chain-H1, myosin-9, vitamin K-dependent factor S, metalloproteinase inhibitor 3, and tropomyosin alpha 4; and (iii) a means of evaluating the atherosclerotic lesion at the initial or the intermediate stage in the subject based on the detection results obtained by means (i) and (ii); wherein the apparatus comprises at least one of the following to detect the plastin-2: positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), γ scintigraphy, autoradiography, fluorescent imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasonication, and computed tomography (CT), a biosensor, a solid-phase support to which an antibody against a marker has been immobilized, mass spectoscropy, a surface plasmon resonance sensor, and an NMR analyzer; and wherein the apparatus further comprises at least one of the following to evaluate the atherosclerotic lesion: an image-numeric data storage part, standard level data storage part, a data comparison part and a data analysis part for analysis of data, data output-display part, a software and a computer unit for activating a computer part.