Atherosclerotic Plaque Imaging

Imaging of the Vulnerable Atherosclerotic Plaque

Evaluation of Atherosclerotic Plaque in Non-invasive Coronary Imaging

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Over the last decade coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) has gained wide acceptance as a reliable, cost-effective and non-invasive modality for diagnosis and prognostication of CAD. Use of CCTA is now expanding to characterization of plaque morphology and identification of vulnerable plaque. Add...

Intravascular magnetic resonance imaging of aortic atherosclerotic plaque composition.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be an excellent tool to define atherosclerotic plaque composition, but surface MRI (SMRI) suffers from a low signal-to-noise ratio and low resolution of arterial images. Intravascular MRI (IVMRI) represents a potential solution for acquiring high-quality in vivo images of atherosclerotic plaques. Isolated segments of 11 thoracic human aortas obtained at auto...

Imaging atherosclerotic plaque inflammation with [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography.

BACKGROUND Atherosclerotic plaque rupture is usually a consequence of inflammatory cell activity within the plaque. Current imaging techniques provide anatomic data but no indication of plaque inflammation. The glucose analogue [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG) can be used to image inflammatory cell activity non-invasively by PET. In this study we tested whether 18FDG-PET imaging can identify in...

Imaging Modalities to Identity Inflammation in an Atherosclerotic Plaque

Atherosclerosis is a chronic, progressive, multifocal arterial wall disease caused by local and systemic inflammation responsible for major cardiovascular complications such as myocardial infarction and stroke. With the recent understanding that vulnerable plaque erosion and rupture, with subsequent thrombosis, rather than luminal stenosis, is the underlying cause of acute ischemic events, ther...