title: Noninvasive diagnosis of vulnerable coronary plaque.
abstract: Myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death are frequently the first manifestation of coronary artery disease. For this reason, screening of asymptomatic coronary atherosclerosis has become an attractive field of research in cardiovascular medicine. Necropsy studies have described histopathological changes associated with the development of acute coronary events. In this regard, thin-cap fibroatheroma has been identified as the main vulnerable coronary plaque feature. Hence, many imaging techniques, such as coronary computed tomography, cardiac magnetic resonance or positron emission tomography, have tried to detect noninvasively these histomorphological characteristics with different approaches. In this article, we review the role of these diagnostic tools in the detection of vulnerable coronary plaque with particular interest in their advantages and limitations as well as the clinical implications of the derived findings.
authors.affiliation: Eduardo Pozo, Pilar Agudo-Quilez, Antonio Rojas-González, Teresa Alvarado, Luis Jesús Jiménez-Borreguero, Fernando Alfonso, Cardiology Department, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, IIS-IP, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pozo
authors.affiliation: Eduardo Pozo, Pilar Agudo-Quilez, Antonio Rojas-González, Teresa Alvarado, Luis Jesús Jiménez-Borreguero, Fernando Alfonso, Cardiology Department, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, IIS-IP, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Agudo-Quilez
authors.affiliation: Eduardo Pozo, Pilar Agudo-Quilez, Antonio Rojas-González, Teresa Alvarado, Luis Jesús Jiménez-Borreguero, Fernando Alfonso, Cardiology Department, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, IIS-IP, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rojas-González
authors.affiliation: Eduardo Pozo, Pilar Agudo-Quilez, Antonio Rojas-González, Teresa Alvarado, Luis Jesús Jiménez-Borreguero, Fernando Alfonso, Cardiology Department, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, IIS-IP, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alvarado
authors.affiliation: Eduardo Pozo, Pilar Agudo-Quilez, Antonio Rojas-González, Teresa Alvarado, Luis Jesús Jiménez-Borreguero, Fernando Alfonso, Cardiology Department, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, IIS-IP, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: María José
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Olivera
authors.affiliation: Eduardo Pozo, Pilar Agudo-Quilez, Antonio Rojas-González, Teresa Alvarado, Luis Jesús Jiménez-Borreguero, Fernando Alfonso, Cardiology Department, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, IIS-IP, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Luis Jesús
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Borreguero
authors.affiliation: Eduardo Pozo, Pilar Agudo-Quilez, Antonio Rojas-González, Teresa Alvarado, Luis Jesús Jiménez-Borreguero, Fernando Alfonso, Cardiology Department, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, IIS-IP, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Alfonso
keywords: Atherosclerosis; Cardiac computed tomography; Cardiac magnetic resonance; Diagnosis; Vulnerable coronary plaque