Assessment of Coronary Plaque Vulnerability with Optical Coherence Tomography.
Several catheter-based imaging modalities have been developed over the past 2 decades for visualizing the morphological features of coronary atherosclerotic plaques that are susceptible to future development of serious cardiovascular events. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a new high-resolution intracoronary imaging modality based on near-infrared interferometry, and it has been shown to be able to identify various components of atheromatous plaques. In this review, we examine the histopathology of vulnerable plaques as a target for imaging technology, and discuss the evidence of OCT in identifying vulnerable atherosclerotic lesions in patients with coronary artery disease.


BACKGROUND
Coronary artery disease; Optical coherence tomography; Vulnerable plaque.
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan.
Shiro
S
Uemura
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan.
Tsunenari
T
Soeda
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan.
Yu
Y
Sugawara
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan.
Tomoya
T
Ueda
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan.
Makoto
M
Watanabe
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan.
Yoshihiko
Y
Saito