Fig. 1.

Tissue type characterisation and the corresponding histological examination (A and A1: the fibrous tissue in the ring enclosed by the dash box was confirmed by Verhoeff׳s Van Gieson (EVG) stain. This confirmed the inner layer (marked by gray arrows) of the ring next to it was fibrous cap; B, B1 and B2: intraplaque hemorrhage was located in the area enclosed by the dash box as confirmed by EVG and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stains. This confirmed the existence of intraplaque hemorrhage (marked by pink asterisks) in the ring next to it; C and C1: the big yellow block in the ring enclosed by the dash box was lipid crystals as shown in the EVG stains. This confirmed that the block marked by the brown asterisk was lipid crystals; rings pairs in A, B and C were adjacent to each other and the one enclosed by dashed boxes were for histological examination and the other for material testing). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)