The assessment of plaque morphology is essential to the diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerotic diseases. Understanding plaque instability is important because vulnerable plaque rupture is the main cause of the onset of cardiovascular events. Therefore, the assessment of plaque instability is critically important.
Remarkable advances in IVUS, OCT, multi-slice CT, MRI and PET, have reached the points that these modalities can localize plaque and determine plaque instability.
In addition, recent pathological findings have revealed that intra-plaque hemorrhage and hypoxia contribute to plaque instability in addition to thinning of the fibrous cap and the accumulation of lipid and inflammatory cells. These findings have stimulated investigations into novel imaging techniques that focus on these factors, and plaque erosion is now detectable. However, relationships between imaging and histopathological findings have yet to be established.
This session will address the current status and future direction of imaging and pathological approaches to evaluating atherosclerosis.