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Hemodynamic, Functional, and Clinical Responses to Pulmonary Artery Denervation in Patients With Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension of Different Causes Evolving insights into the role of local shear stress in late stent failure from neoatherosclerosis formation and plaque destabilization Management and outcomes of patients with left atrial appendage thrombus prior to percutaneous closure Systematic Review and Network Meta‐Analysis Comparing Bifurcation Techniques for Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Rivaroxaban for Thromboprophylaxis in High-Risk Ambulatory Patients With Cancer 2015 ACC/HRS/SCAI Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion Device Societal Overview Long-Term Outcomes of Patients With Mediastinal Radiation–Associated Coronary Artery Disease Undergoing Coronary Revascularization With Percutaneous Coronary Intervention and Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Implications of the local hemodynamic forces on the formation and destabilization of neoatherosclerotic lesions Transseptal puncture versus patent foramen ovale or atrial septal defect access for left atrial appendage closure Alcohol consumption, cardiac biomarkers, and risk of atrial fibrillation and adverse outcomes

EditorialOctober 2017, Volume 10, Issue 10

JOURNAL:Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. Article Link

High-Risk Coronary Atherosclerosis Is It the Plaque Burden, the Calcium, the Lipid, or Something Else?

Akiko Maehara, Gregg W. Stone Keywords: calcium death, sudden, cardiac, humans risk factors

ABSTRACT

Cardiac death and myocardial infarction usually result from thrombotic occlusion of a coronary artery with underlying atherosclerotic plaque. Histologically, most underlying plaques that have resulted in sudden cardiac death or myocardial infarction because of coronary thrombosis (vulnerable plaque) are ruptured thin-cap fibroatheromas with large plaque burden and a lipid-rich necrotic core. Second most common are erosions of proteoglycan-rich plaques with thrombosis, despite an intact fibrous cap. The extent that macroscopic or microscopic calcification contributes to plaque instability and thrombosis is controversial. Both fibroatheromas and erosion-prone plaques may be calcified and, occasionally, an isolated calcified nodule has been associated with coronary thrombosis. Using noninvasive and invasive imaging techniques, new in vivo insights into the role of calcification in patient and plaque vulnerability are emerging. The computed tomography (CT)-derived coronary artery calcium score (CACS) accounts for the area and the maximum density of each detected calcium deposit in the entire coronary tree and has proven useful in predicting future cardiovascular events in asymptomatic patients at intermediate risk. CT angiography has demonstrated that hypolucent plaques with positive remodeling or a napkin-ring sign predict future cardiac death, myocardial infarction, or acute coronary syndromes (ACS; patient-level analysis). Finally, prospective intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) studies have shown that a large plaque burden, small minimal lumen area (MLA), and composition consistent with a thin-cap fibroatheroma by radiofrequency analysis identifies those plaques that are likely to cause future adverse cardiovascular events (lesion-level analysis). In this regard, coronary calcification has been correlated with plaque burden but not luminal stenosis. Reconciling these differences, especially the apparent discordance between plaque burden, coronary calcium, and lipid as risk factors is a matter of importance.