Livestock plants and COVID-19 transmission.

Policy responses to the COVID-19 outbreak must strike a balance between maintaining essential supply chains and limiting the spread of the virus. Our results indicate a strong positive relationship between livestock-processing plants and local community transmission of COVID-19, suggesting that these plants may act as transmission vectors into the surrounding population and accelerate the spread of the virus beyond what would be predicted solely by population risk characteristics. We estimate the total excess COVID-19 cases and deaths associated with proximity to livestock plants to be 236,000 to 310,000 (6 to 8% of all US cases) and 4,300 to 5,200 (3 to 4% of all US deaths), respectively, as of July 21, 2020, with the vast majority likely related to community spread outside these plants. The association is found primarily among large processing facilities and large meatpacking companies. In addition, we find evidence that plant closures attenuated county-wide cases and that plants that received permission from the US Department of Agriculture to increase their production-line speeds saw more county-wide cases. Ensuring both public health and robust essential supply chains may require an increase in meatpacking oversight and potentially a shift toward more decentralized, smaller-scale meat production.

Non-invasive procedural planning using computed tomography-derived fractional flow reserve.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the performance of computed tomography derived fractional flow reserve based interactive planner (FFRCT planner) to predict the physiological benefits of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) as defined by invasive post-PCI FFR. BACKGROUND: Advances in FFRCT technology have enabled the simulation of hyperemic pressure changes after virtual removal of stenoses. METHODS: In 56 patients (63 vessels) invasive FFR measurements before and after PCI were obtained and FFRCT was calculated using pre-PCI coronary CT angiography. Subsequently, FFRCT and invasive coronary angiography models were aligned allowing virtual removal of coronary stenoses on pre-PCI FFRCT models in the same locations as PCI was performed. Relationships between invasive FFR and FFRCT , between post-PCI FFR and FFRCT planner, and between delta FFR and delta FFRCT were evaluated. RESULTS: Pre PCI, invasive FFR was 0.65 ± 0.12 and FFRCT was 0.64 ± 0.13 (p = .34) with a mean difference of 0.015 (95% CI: -0.23-0.26). Post-PCI invasive FFR was 0.89 ± 0.07 and FFRCT planner was 0.85 ± 0.07 (p < .001) with a mean difference of 0.040 (95% CI: -0.10-0.18). Delta invasive FFR and delta FFRCT were 0.23 ± 0.12 and 0.21 ± 0.12 (p = .09) with a mean difference of 0.025 (95% CI: -0.20-0.25). Significant correlations were found between pre-PCI FFR and FFRCT (r = 0.53, p < .001), between post-PCI FFR and FFRCT planner (r = 0.41, p = .001), and between delta FFR and delta FFRCT (r = 0.57, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The non-invasive FFRCT planner tool demonstrated significant albeit modest agreement with post-PCI FFR and change in FFR values after PCI. The FFRCT planner tool may hold promise for PCI procedural planning; however, improvement in technology is warranted before clinical application.

Relevance of anatomical, plaque, and hemodynamic characteristics of non-obstructive coronary lesions in the prediction of risk for acute coronary syndrome.

OBJECTIVES: We explored the anatomical, plaque, and hemodynamic characteristics of high-risk non-obstructive coronary lesions that caused acute coronary syndrome (ACS). METHODS: From the EMERALD study which included ACS patients with available coronary CT angiography (CCTA) before the ACS, non-obstructive lesions (percent diameter stenosis < 50%) were selected. CCTA images were analyzed for lesion characteristics by independent CCTA and computational fluid dynamics core laboratories. The relative importance of each characteristic was assessed by information gain. RESULTS: Of the 132 lesions, 24 were the culprit for ACS. The culprit lesions showed a larger change in FFRCT across the lesion (ΔFFRCT) than non-culprit lesions (0.08 ± 0.07 vs 0.05 ± 0.05, p = 0.012). ΔFFRCT showed the highest information gain (0.051, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.050-0.052), followed by low-attenuation plaque (0.028, 95% CI 0.027-0.029) and plaque volume (0.023, 95% CI 0.022-0.024). Lesions with higher ΔFFRCT or low-attenuation plaque showed an increased risk of ACS (hazard ratio [HR] 3.25, 95% CI 1.31-8.04, p = 0.010 for ΔFFRCT; HR 2.60, 95% CI 1.36-4.95, p = 0.004 for low-attenuation plaque). The prediction model including ΔFFRCT, low-attenuation plaque and plaque volume showed the highest ability in ACS prediction (AUC 0.725, 95% CI 0.724-0.727). CONCLUSION: Non-obstructive lesions with higher ΔFFRCT or low-attenuation plaque showed a higher risk of ACS. The integration of anatomical, plaque, and hemodynamic characteristics can improve the noninvasive prediction of ACS risk in non-obstructive lesions. KEY POINTS: • Change in FFR CT across the lesion (ΔFFR CT ) was the most important predictor of ACS risk in non-obstructive lesions. • Non-obstructive lesions with higher ΔFFR CT or low-attenuation plaque were associated with a higher risk of ACS. • The integration of anatomical, plaque, and hemodynamic characteristics can improve the noninvasive prediction of ACS risk.

Coerced resilience in fire management.

Mechanisms underlying the loss of ecological resilience and a shift to an alternate regime with lower ecosystem service provisioning continues to be a leading debate in ecology, particularly in cases where evidence points to human actions and decision-making as the primary drivers of resilience loss and regime change. In this paper, we introduce the concept of coerced resilience as a way to explore the interplay among social power, ecological resilience, and fire management, and to better understand the unintended and undesired regime changes that often surprise ecosystem managers and governing officials. Philosophically, coercion is the opposite of freedom, and uses influence or force to gain compliance among local actors. The coercive force imposed by societal laws and policies can either enhance or reduce the potential to manage for essential structures and functions of ecological systems and, therefore, can greatly alter resilience. Using a classical fire-dependent regime shift from North America (tallgrass prairie to juniper woodland), and given that coercion is widespread in fire management today, we quantify relative differences in resilience that emerge in a policy-coerced fire system compared to a theoretical, policy-free fire system. Social coercion caused large departures in the fire conditions associated with alternative grassland and juniper woodland states, and the potential for a grassland state to emerge to dominance became increasingly untenable with fire as juniper cover increased. In contrast, both a treeless, grassland regime and a co-dominated grass-tree regime emerged across a wide range of fire conditions in the absence of policy controls. The severe coercive forcing present in fire management in the Great Plains, and corresponding erosion of grassland resilience, points to the need for transformative environmental governance and the rethinking of social power structures in modern fire policies.

Automated estimation of image quality for coronary computed tomographic angiography using machine learning.

OBJECTIVES: Our goal was to evaluate the efficacy of a fully automated method for assessing the image quality (IQ) of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA). METHODS: The machine learning method was trained using 75 CCTA studies by mapping features (noise, contrast, misregistration scores, and un-interpretability index) to an IQ score based on manual ground truth data. The automated method was validated on a set of 50 CCTA studies and subsequently tested on a new set of 172 CCTA studies against visual IQ scores on a 5-point Likert scale. RESULTS: The area under the curve in the validation set was 0.96. In the 172 CCTA studies, our method yielded a Cohen's kappa statistic for the agreement between automated and visual IQ assessment of 0.67 (p < 0.01). In the group where good to excellent (n = 163), fair (n = 6), and poor visual IQ scores (n = 3) were graded, 155, 5, and 2 of the patients received an automated IQ score > 50 %, respectively. CONCLUSION: Fully automated assessment of the IQ of CCTA data sets by machine learning was reproducible and provided similar results compared with visual analysis within the limits of inter-operator variability. KEY POINTS: • The proposed method enables automated and reproducible image quality assessment. • Machine learning and visual assessments yielded comparable estimates of image quality. • Automated assessment potentially allows for more standardised image quality. • Image quality assessment enables standardization of clinical trial results across different datasets.

Noninvasive Fractional Flow Reserve Derived From Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography　- Is This Just Another New Diagnostic Test or the Long-Awaited Game Changer?

Despite the clinical importance of ischemia evaluation, obtaining fractional flow reserve (FFR) value has, heretofore, only been available during invasive cardiac catheterization. Although there is a clear linkage between morphology and physiology, a significant gap still exists. FFR derived from coronary computed tomography angiography (FFRCT) is a novel method of quantifying the hemodynamic significance of coronary artery stenoses by translating morphological information into hemodynamic data. Improved diagnostic performance of FFRCThas been repeatedly demonstrated in comparison with coronary computed tomography angiography alone with an invasive FFR reference standard. More recently, the potential benefit of this technology to safely defer non-indicated catheterizations and reduce healthcare costs has been established and indicates this technology may improve the management of patients with coronary artery disease. In this review, we summarize the scientific basis of FFRCTand evidence from clinical trials, provide illustrative examples of clinical applications, discuss potential limitations, and outline avenues for future research.

Abdominal Aortic Hemodynamics in Intermittent Claudication Patients at Rest and during Dynamic Pedaling Exercise.

BACKGROUND: Lower-extremity exercise has been shown to eliminate adverse hemodynamics conditions, such as low and oscillating blood flow and wall shear stress, in the abdominal aortas of healthy young and older adults. METHODS: We use cine phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging and a custom MRI-compatible exercise cycle to quantify hemodynamic changes because of pedaling exercise in patients diagnosed with intermittent claudication. RESULTS: With only an average heart increase of 35 ± 18% and exercise workload of 36 ± 16 watts, the patients experienced approximately 3- and 6-fold increases in blood flow, and 4- and 16-fold increases in wall shear stress at the supraceliac and infrarenal aortic locations, respectively. Also, all oscillations in flow and shear stress at rest were eliminated with exercise. CONCLUSIONS: Claudication patients experience 3- to 4-fold lower oscillations in flow and shear stress at rest as compared with healthy age-matched controls, likely because of reduced distal arterial compliance as a result of distal atherosclerosis. The magnitude of flow and shear oscillatory indices may be good indicators of distal arterial compliance and health, and may provide predictive power for the efficacy of focal interventions.

The role of prescribed burn associations in the application of prescribed fires in rangeland ecosystems.

Risk and liability concerns regarding fire affect people's attitudes toward fire and have led to human-induced alterations of fire regimes. This has, in turn, contributed to brush encroachment and degradation of many grasslands and savannas. Efforts to successfully restore such degraded ecosystems at the landscape scale in regions of the United States with high proportions of private lands require the reintroduction of fire. Prescribed Burn Associations (PBA) provide training, equipment, and labor to apply fire safely, facilitating the application of this rangeland management tool and thereby reducing the associated risk. PBAs help build networks and social capital among landowners who are interested in using fire. They can also change attitudes toward fire and enhance the social acceptability of using prescribed fire as a management practice. PBAs are an effective mechanism for promoting the widespread use of prescribed fire to restore and maintain the biophysical integrity of grasslands and savannas at the landscape scale. We report findings of a project aimed at determining the human dimensions of using prescribed fire to control woody plant encroachment in three different eco-regions of Texas. Specifically, we examine membership in PBAs as it relates to land manager decisions regarding the use of prescribed fire. Perceived risk has previously been identified as a key factor inhibiting the use of prescribed fire by landowners. Our results show that perceived constraints, due to lack of skill, knowledge, and access to equipment and membership in a PBAs are more important factors than risk perceptions in affecting landowner decisions about the use of fire. This emphasizes the potential for PBAs to reduce risk perceptions regarding the application of prescribed fire and, therefore, their importance for restoring brush-encroached grasslands and savannas.

Changes in donor vessel physiology following coronary computed tomography angiography guided chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention: insights from computed tomography fractional flow reserve and artificial intelligence-guided ischemia model.

Donor vessel fractional flow reserve (FFR) usually increases following successful chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention, as documented by pressure wires. In this case, donor vessel physiology changes were assessed using FFR derived from coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and an artificial Intelligence-guided quantitative CCTA ischemia model in combination with pressure wire-based FFR.

Prospective deep learning-based quantitative assessment of coronary plaque by computed tomography angiography compared with intravascular ultrasound: the REVEALPLAQUE study.

AIMS: Coronary computed tomography angiography provides non-invasive assessment of coronary stenosis severity and flow impairment. Automated artificial intelligence (AI) analysis may assist in precise quantification and characterization of coronary atherosclerosis, enabling patient-specific risk determination and management strategies. This multicentre international study compared an automated deep learning-based method for segmenting coronary atherosclerosis in coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) against the reference standard of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). METHODS AND RESULTS: The study included clinically stable patients with known coronary artery disease from 15 centres in the USA and Japan. An AI-enabled plaque analysis was utilized to quantify and characterize total plaque (TPV), vessel, lumen, calcified plaque (CP), non-calcified plaque (NCP), and low-attenuation plaque (LAP) volumes derived from CCTA and compared with IVUS measurements in a blinded, core laboratory-adjudicated fashion. In 237 patients, 432 lesions were assessed; mean lesion length was 24.5 mm, and mean IVUS-TPV was 186.0 mm3. AI-enabled plaque analysis on CCTA showed strong correlation and high accuracy when compared with IVUS; correlation coefficient, slope, and Y intercept for TPV were 0.91, 0.99, and 1.87, respectively; for CP volume 0.91, 1.05, and 5.32, respectively; and for NCP volume 0.87, 0.98, and 15.24, respectively. Bland-Altman analysis demonstrated strong agreement with little bias for these measurements. CONCLUSION: AI-enabled CCTA quantification and characterization of atherosclerosis demonstrated strong agreement with IVUS reference standard measurements. This tool may prove effective for accurate evaluation of coronary atherosclerotic burden and cardiovascular risk assessment.

Coronary computed tomography angiography-based SYNTAX score for comprehensive assessment of advanced coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND: Since the initial attempt to adapt the anatomical SYNTAX score (aSS) to coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA), CCTA imaging technology has evolved, and is currently used as a "decision-maker" for revascularization strategy in complex coronary artery disease (CAD) and has rendered necessary some updating of the aSS to the CCTA modality. OBJECTIVES: The aim is to provide updated definitions of the aSS derived from CCTA in patients with complex CAD undergoing CABG. METHODS: The modifications of CCTA-aSS are the following; (i) updated definition and detection criteria of total occlusion (TO) in CCTA based on length assessment, (ii) inclusion of scoring points for serial bifurcations located in one single coronary segment. (iii) inclusion of weighing score points for lesions located distal to a TO, not visualized on conventional coronary angiography, but visible in CCTA, (iv) removal of thrombus and bridging collateral items from the weighing score, considering the limited diagnostic capability of CCTA in detecting these specific lesion characteristics. RESULTS: the updated CCTA-aSS was tested in a first-in-man study using the sole guidance of CCTA for the planning and performance of bypass surgery in complex CAD (n â€‹= â€‹114). An interobserver analysis showed excellent reproducibility (ICC â€‹= â€‹0.96, 95 â€‹% confidence interval 0.94-0.97). CONCLUSION: The updated CCTA-aSS was implemented in a cohort of patients with complex CAD undergoing CABG with the sole guidance of CCTA and FFRCT and the Inter-reproducibility of the analysis of the updated score was found excellent. The prognostic value of the modified CCTA-aSS will be examined in future studies.

Predictors for Vulnerable Plaque in Functionally Significant Lesions.

BACKGROUND: Vulnerable plaque presents prognostic implications in addition to functional significance. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to identify relevant features of vulnerable plaque in functionally significant lesions. METHODS: In this multicenter, prospective study conducted across 5 countries, including patients who had invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) ≤0.80, a total of 95 patients with available pullback pressure gradient (PPG) and plaque analysis on coronary computed tomographic angiography and optical coherence tomography were analyzed. Vulnerable plaque was defined as the presence of plaque rupture or thin-cap fibroatheroma on optical coherence tomography. Among the 25 clinical characteristics, invasive angiographic findings, physiological indexes, and coronary computed tomographic angiographic findings, significant predictors of vulnerable plaque were identified. RESULTS: Mean percentage diameter stenosis, FFR, and PPG were 77.8% ± 14.6%, 0.66 ± 0.13, and 0.65 ± 0.13, respectively. Vulnerable plaque was present in 53 lesions (55.8%). PPG and FFR were identified as significant predictors of vulnerable plaque (P < 0.05 for all). PPG >0.65 and FFR ≤0.70 were significantly related to a higher probability of vulnerable plaque after adjustment for each other (OR: 6.75 [95% CI: 2.39-19.1]; P < 0.001] for PPG >0.65; OR: 4.61 [95% CI: 1.66-12.8]; P = 0.003 for FFR ≤0.70). When categorizing lesions according to combined PPG >0.65 and FFR ≤0.70, the prevalence of vulnerable plaque was 20.0%, 57.1%, 66.7%, and 88.2% in the order of PPG ≤0.65 and FFR >0.70, PPG ≤0.65 and FFR ≤0.70, PPG >0.65 and FFR >0.70, and PPG >0.65 and FFR ≤0.70 (P for trend < 0.001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Among low-FFR lesions, the presence of vulnerable plaque can be predicted by PPG combined with FFR without additional anatomical or plaque characteristics. (Precise Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Plan [P3] Study; NCT03782688).

Cardiac computed tomography-derived coronary artery volume to myocardial mass in patients with severe coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery lumen volume (V) to myocardial mass (M) ratio (V/M) can show the mismatch between epicardial coronary arteries and the underlying myocardium. METHODS: The V, M and V/M were obtained from the coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) of patients in the FAST-TRACK CABG study, the first-in-human trial of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) guided solely by CCTA and fractional flow reserve derived from CCTA (FFRCT) in patients with complex coronary artery disease (CAD). The correlations between V/M ratios and baseline characteristics were determined and compared with those from the ADVANCE registry, an unselected cohort of historical controls with chronic CAD. RESULTS: The V/M ratio was obtained in 106 of the 114 pre-CABG CCTAs. Mean age was 65.6 years and 87% of them were male. The anatomical SYNTAX score from CCTA was significantly higher than the functional SYNTAX score derived using FFRCT [43.1 (15.2) vs 41.1 (16.5), p â€‹< â€‹0.001]. Mean V, M, and V/M were 2204 â€‹mm3, 137 â€‹g, and 16.5 â€‹mm3/g, respectively. There were weak negative correlations between V and anatomical and functional SYNTAX scores (Pearson's r â€‹= â€‹-0.26 and -0.34). V and V/M had a strong correlation (r â€‹= â€‹0.82). The V/M ratio in the current study was significantly lower than that in the ADVANCE registry (median 16.1 vs. 24.8 [1st quartile 20.1]). CONCLUSION: Systematically smaller V/M ratios were found in this population with severe CAD requiring CABG compared to an unselected cohort with chronic CAD. The V/M ratio could provide additional non-invasive assessment of CAD especially when combined with FFRCT.

Chronic effects of pulmonary artery stenosis on hemodynamic and structural development of the lungs.

Pulmonary artery (PA) stenosis is a difficult obstructive defect to manage since clinicians cannot know a priori which obstructions to treat and when. Prognosis of PA stenosis and its chronic effects on lung development are poorly understood. This study aimed to characterize the hemodynamic and structural effects of PA stenosis during development. Fourteen male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent left PA (LPA) banding at age 21 days, and 13 underwent sham operation. Hemodynamic and structural impacts were studied longitudinally at 20, 36, 52, 100, and 160 days. Chronic LPA banding resulted in a significant reduction in LPA flow (P < 0.0001) and size of both proximal LPA (P < 0.0001) and distal LPA (P < 0.01), as well as a significant increase in flow and size of the right PA (P < 0.05) throughout development. Flows and sizes adapted such that normal levels of wall shear were restored after banding. At 160 days, LPA banding resulted in a significant decrease in left lung volume and an increase in right lung volume but no significant differences in total lung volume. There was an elevation of proximal LPA pressure as well as right ventricular hypertrophy in the banded animals. The banded lung exhibited arterial disorganization, loss of vessels, and enlargement of its bronchial arteries, whereas the contralateral lung showed signs of vascular pathology. There are consequences on development of both lungs in the presence of an LPA stenosis at young age. These results suggest that early intervention may be necessary to optimize left lung growth and minimize right lung vascular pathology.

Long-term prognostic implications of hemodynamic and plaque assessment using coronary CT angiography.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Hemodynamic and plaque characteristics can be analyzed using coronary CT angiography (CTA). We aimed to explore long-term prognostic implications of hemodynamic and plaque characteristics using coronary CT angiography (CTA). METHODS: Invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) and CTA-derived FFR (FFRCT) were undertaken for 136 lesions in 78 vessels and followed-up to 10 years until December 2020. FFRCT, wall shear stress (WSS), change in FFRCT across the lesion (ΔFFRCT), total plaque volume (TPV), percent atheroma volume (PAV), and low-attenuation plaque volume (LAPV) for target lesions [L] and vessels [V] were obtained by independent core laboratories. Their collective influence was evaluated for the clinical endpoints of target vessel failure (TVF) and target lesion failure (TLF). RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 10.1 years, PAV[V] (per 10% increase, HR 2.32 [95% CI 1.11-4.86], p = 0.025), and FFRCT[V] (per 0.1 increase, HR 0.56 [95% CI 0.37-0.84], p = 0.006) were independent predictors of TVF for the per-vessel analysis, and WSS[L] (per 100 dyne/cm2 increase, HR 1.43 [1.09-1.88], p = 0.010), LAPV[L] (per 10 mm3 increase, HR 3.81 [1.16-12.5], p = 0.028), and ΔFFRCT[L] (per 0.1 increase, HR 1.39 [1.02-1.90], p = 0.040) were independent predictors of TLF for the per-lesion analysis after adjustment for clinical and lesion characteristics. The addition of both plaque and hemodynamic predictors improved the predictability for 10-year TVF and TLF of clinical and lesion characteristics (all p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Vessel- and lesion-level hemodynamic characteristics, and vessel-level plaque quantity, and lesion-level plaque compositional characteristics assessed by CTA offer independent and additive long-term prognostic value.

Coronary Atherosclerosis Phenotypes in Focal and Diffuse Disease.

BACKGROUND: The interplay between coronary hemodynamics and plaque characteristics remains poorly understood. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare atherosclerotic plaque phenotypes between focal and diffuse coronary artery disease (CAD) defined by coronary hemodynamics. METHODS: This multicenter, prospective, single-arm study was conducted in 5 countries. Patients with functionally significant lesions based on an invasive fractional flow reserve ≤0.80 were included. Plaque analysis was performed by using coronary computed tomography angiography and optical coherence tomography. CAD patterns were assessed using motorized fractional flow reserve pullbacks and quantified by pullback pressure gradient (PPG). Focal and diffuse CAD was defined according to the median PPG value. RESULTS: A total of 117 patients (120 vessels) were included. The median PPG was 0.66 (IQR: 0.54-0.75). According to coronary computed tomography angiography analysis, plaque burden was higher in patients with focal CAD (87% ± 8% focal vs 82% ± 10% diffuse; P = 0.003). Calcifications were significantly more prevalent in patients with diffuse CAD (Agatston score per vessel: 51 [IQR: 11-204] focal vs 158 [IQR: 52-341] diffuse; P = 0.024). According to optical coherence tomography analysis, patients with focal CAD had a significantly higher prevalence of circumferential lipid-rich plaque (37% focal vs 4% diffuse; P = 0.001) and thin-cap fibroatheroma (TCFA) (47% focal vs 10% diffuse; P = 0.002). Focal disease defined by PPG predicted the presence of TCFA with an area under the curve of 0.73 (95% CI: 0.58-0.87). CONCLUSIONS: Atherosclerotic plaque phenotypes associate with intracoronary hemodynamics. Focal CAD had a higher plaque burden and was predominantly lipid-rich with a high prevalence of TCFA, whereas calcifications were more prevalent in diffuse CAD. (Precise Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Plan [P3]; NCT03782688).

Computed tomographic angiography in coronary artery disease.

Coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) is becoming the first-line investigation for establishing the presence of coronary artery disease and, with fractional flow reserve (FFRCT), its haemodynamic significance. In patients without significant epicardial obstruction, its role is either to rule out atherosclerosis or to detect subclinical plaque that should be monitored for plaque progression/regression following prevention therapy and provide risk classification. Ischaemic non-obstructive coronary arteries are also expected to be assessed by non-invasive imaging, including CCTA. In patients with significant epicardial obstruction, CCTA can assist in planning revascularisation by determining the disease complexity, vessel size, lesion length and tissue composition of the atherosclerotic plaque, as well as the best fluoroscopic viewing angle; it may also help in selecting adjunctive percutaneous devices (e.g., rotational atherectomy) and in determining the best landing zone for stents or bypass grafts.

A method for quantitative characterization of growth in the 3-D structure of rat pulmonary arteries.

Understanding mechanisms causing pulmonary vascular disease (PVD) frequently requires a thorough understanding of the underlying structural changes in the pulmonary circulation. Animal models have been used extensively to study different forms of PVD but conventional experimental techniques are limited in their ability to allow the study of the whole pulmonary vasculature at once. In this study, we introduce novel techniques of arterial casting, high-resolution imaging and tree analysis to study the pulmonary circulation in rodent models. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were used at 20, 36, 52, 100 and 160 days of age. A technique involving arterial casting with Microfil silicone polymer, high-resolution micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) at 12.5 µm resolution and image data analysis involving segmentation and skeletonization was developed to both qualitatively and quantitatively describe the changes in the pulmonary vasculature with increasing age. Parameters identified to affect the quality of pulmonary arterial casting included polymer flow rate, total injected volume, polymer viscosity and polymerization time. By optimizing these parameters, we successfully created arterial casts of the pulmonary circulation in rats of different ages and demonstrated the feasibility of quantitatively characterizing the changes in the number of vessels with postnatal growth. These preliminary data suggest that the number of vessels with lumen diameters of 50-200 µm increases rapidly in both lungs between 52 and 100 days of age. With this new technique, the pulmonary vasculature can now be studied in a whole lung animal model to better understand the global effects of disease on vascular structure.

Influences of aortic motion and curvature on vessel expansion in murine experimental aneurysms.

OBJECTIVE: To quantitatively compare aortic curvature and motion with resulting aneurysm location, direction of expansion, and pathophysiological features in experimental abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs). METHODS AND RESULTS: MRI was performed at 4.7 T with the following parameters: (1) 3D acquisition for vessel geometry and (2) 2D cardiac-gated acquisition to quantify luminal motion. Male 24-week-old mice were imaged before and after AAA formation induced by angiotensin II (AngII)-filled osmotic pump implantation or infusion of elastase. AngII-induced AAAs formed near the location of maximum abdominal aortic curvature, and the leftward direction of expansion was correlated with the direction of suprarenal aortic motion. Elastase-induced AAAs formed in a region of low vessel curvature and had no repeatable direction of expansion. AngII significantly increased mean blood pressure (22.7 mm Hg, P<0.05), whereas both models showed a significant 2-fold decrease in aortic cyclic strain (P<0.05). Differences in patterns of elastin degradation and localization of fluorescent signal from protease-activated probes were also observed. CONCLUSIONS: The direction of AngII aneurysm expansion correlated with the direction of motion, medial elastin dissection, and adventitial remodeling. Anterior infrarenal aortic motion correlated with medial elastin degradation in elastase-induced aneurysms. Results from both models suggest a relationship between aneurysm pathological features and aortic geometry and motion.