Imaging atherosclerotic plaque inflammation.
Inflammation within atherosclerotic plaques is one of the main drivers of atherosclerotic plaque rupture, which frequently leads to clinical events such as myocardial infarction and stroke. Current gold standard techniques such as X-ray angiography and ultrasound can rapidly report on luminal encroachment but give no readout on inflammatory state of the plaque. We summarize several alternative imaging techniques--CT, MRI, and nuclear imaging--that are close to the clinical arena, and we provide the relative advantages of each.
Rudd
James H F
JH
Cardiovascular Medicine at Cambridge University and Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, UK. jhfr2@cam.ac.uk
Fayad
Zahi A
ZA
D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed