In 1957, Lown was concerned with how to visualize an atherosclerotic aortic plaque, which occurs in the big coronary vessels that supply nutrients to the heart muscle.
Paradoxically, when Lown submitted two abstracts to the World Cardiology Conference in Mexico in 1964, one on the defibrillator and cardioversion, and one dealing with fiber optics, the former was rejected and the latter accepted.