Multimodal Imaging Mass Spectrometry to Identify Markers of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension in Human Lung Tissue Using MALDI-ToF, ToF-SIMS, and Hybrid SIMS.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare and deadly disease affecting roughly 15-60 people per million in Europe with a poorly understood pathology. There are currently no diagnostic tools for early detection nor does a curative treatment exist. The lipid composition of arteries in lung tissue samples from human PAH and control patients were investigated using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) combined with time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) imaging. Using random forests as an IMS data analysis technique, it was possible to identify the ion at