WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it has approved a device that can see inside a blood vessel to assess the fat content of the arterial plaque.

As plaque accumulates on the artery wall, it reduces blood flow to the heart and increases the risk of blood clots that can lead to a heart attack.

"This is the first device that can help assess the chemical make-up of coronary artery plaques and help physicians identify those plaques with lipid cores, which may be of particular concern," said Dr. Daniel Schultz, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

The LipiScan system uses infrared imaging to detect lipid core-containing plaques of interest and assess a patient's coronary artery lipid core burden index. The device works by placing a catheter equipped with a fiber-optic laser light into the artery.

The device shines near infrared light through the blood to the arterial wall, measuring the light reflected from the wall -- a technique called spectroscopy. The reflected wavelengths vary depending on how much fat and other substances are in the plaque in the illuminated portion of the wall.

LipiScan is manufactured by InfraReDx Inc. of Burlington, Mass.

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