Photodynamic Diagnosis and Treatment of Atheroma

Abstract

Advances in three main factors, which are photosensitizers, laser equipments and fluorescence detectors, develope photodynamic diagnosis and therapy in the fields of canser research and vascular medicine. A new photosensitizer, mono-L-aspartyl chlorin e6 (NPe6), accumulates in atheroma and emitts fluorescence at 672nm by irradiation of laser at 664nm. Atheroma is diagnosed using the high sensitive fluorescence detector with a selective band pass filter and treated by laser irradiation with high tissue fluence. Indication of photodynamic diagnosis and therapy now spreads to the atherosclerotic diseases.