Figure 1.

Target zone selection and ROI placement. Left: A target zone for analysis was selected at a site where plaque was thicker than 0.5 mm with no calcification and no artifacts. Right: One hundred (10 × 10) ROIs were placed on the target zone, with the innermost 10 and outermost 10 ROIs being carefully placed to exclude the intimal surface and external elastic lamina (EEL), respectively.