Near-infrared spectroscopy can discriminate lipid-rich plaques in ex vivo human aorta specimens through variable depths of blood with high sensitivity (91%) and specificity (88%). The study demonstrated the potential for NIR spectroscopy, combined with chemometrics, to detect vulnerable plaques in coronary arteries by identifying chemical composition regardless of blood depth. Ongoing work aims to reproduce the results in coronary tissue and develop a catheter-based system for human studies to discriminate disrupted plaques from normal tissue through blood in patients.