Optical coherence tomography and coronary angioscopy assessment of healed coronary plaque components.

PURPOSE: Histopathological or intracoronary image assessment of healed plaques (HPs) has been reported. However, the lesion characteristics of HPs remains undetermined yet. We assessed the healed plaque components in patients with coronary artery lesions using multiple imaging modalities. METHODS: We enrolled 33 stable angina pectoris (SAP) patients with 36 native coronary culprit lesions with angiography severe stenosis and without severe calcification undergoing pre-intervention optical coherence tomography (OCT) and coronary angioscopy (CAS). HPs were defined as layered phenotype on OCT. Lesion morphologies and plaque characteristics of HPs were assessed using OCT and CAS. RESULTS: HPs were observed in 19 lesions (52.8%). HP lesions had higher frequent B2/C lesions (89.4% vs. 52.9%, p = 0.02), worse pre-PCI coronary flow (corrected thrombolysis in myocardial infarction count 21.6 ± 13.5 vs. 13.8 ± 6.2, p = 0.047) and greater lumen-area stenosis (79.6 ± 10.6% vs. 68.0 ± 21.6%, p = 0.047) than non-HP lesions. HP lesions had higher prevalence of OCT-thin-cap fibroatheroma (TCFA) (31.6% vs. 0.0%, p = 0.02), OCT-macrophage (89.5% vs. 41.2%, p = 0.004), and CAS-red thrombus (89.5% vs. 41.2%, p = 0.004) than non-HP lesions. The combination of 3 features including OCT-TCFA, macrophages, and CAS-red thrombus showed higher predictive valuer for HPs on OCT than each single variable. Post-PCI irregular tissue protrusion was more frequently observed in lesions with HPs than in those without (52.6% vs. 13.3%, p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: SAP lesions with HPs might have more frequent vulnerable plaques with intraplaque inflammation and thrombus than those without, suggesting that layered phenotype on OCT might reflect not only healing process but also potential risks for future coronary events.

Intravascular Ultrasound and Angioscopy Assessment of Coronary Plaque Components in Chronic Totally Occluded Lesions.

BACKGROUND: The in vivo lesion morphologies and plaque components of coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO) lesions remain unclear.Methods and Results:We investigated 57 consecutive CTO lesions in 57 patients with stable angina pectoris undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and coronary angioscopy (CAS) examination. All CTO lesions were classified according to the proximal angiographic lumen pattern; tapered-type (T-CTO) and abrupt-type (A-CTO). The differences in the intracoronary images of these lesion types were evaluated according to the location within the CTO segment. A total of 35 lesions (61.4%) were T-CTO. T-CTO lesions had higher frequencies of red thrombi (proximal 71.4%; middle 74.3%; distal 31.4%; P<0.001) and bright-yellow plaques (yellow-grade 2-3) (48.6%; 74.3%; 2.9%; P<0.001) at the proximal or middle than at the distal subsegment; A-CTO lesions showed no significant differences among the 3 sub-segments. At the middle subsegment, T-CTO lesions showed higher frequencies of positive remodeling (51.4% vs. 18.2%, P=0.01) and bright-yellow plaques (74.3% vs. 13.6%, P<0.001) compared with A-CTO lesions. Multivariate analysis identified bright-yellow plaque as an independent predictor (odds ratio, 7.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.25-42.04; P=0.03) of the occurrence of periprocedural myocardial necrosis. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of IVUS and CAS analysis may be useful for identifying lesion morphology and plaque components, which may help clarify the pathogenetic mechanism of CTO lesions.