الفهرس 
ATHEROSCLEROSISOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
I
n the evaluation of patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD), the role of non-invasive imaging has increased exponentially over the past decades, particularly in patients with an intermediate likelihood of CAD.
Non-invasive imaging plays an important role in risk stratification and selection of further treatment strategies. More recently, multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) has been proposed as an alternative imaging modality for evaluation of patients with suspected CAD.
With the recently introduced 64-slice MSCT, high sensitivity (96.7%) and specificity (97.5%) for the detection of significant (> 50% luminal narrowing) stenoses have been reported which has made non-invasive coronary angiography using 64-slice CT a modality that allows significant coronary stenoses to be reliably excluded.
Non-invasive coronary MSCT can visualize the coronary artery lumen, artery wall, and atherosclerotic plaque; even the lipid pool can be visualized.
Little data exists on accuracy of MSCT to assess the lesion severity (% area stenosis & lesion length).
The current study aimed at evaluating the role of MSCT in differentiating vulnerable from stable coronary atherosclerotic plaques via characterization of these plaques & correlating plaque characters with the symptoms of the patients.
This study retrospectively assessed 60 patients: 30 of them were presented with stable symptoms (chest pain) & the other 30 were presented with acute coronary syndrome. All of them underwent MSCT & characterization of their coronary plaques was done according to: calcium score, calcification, centricity, density & positive remodeling of the plaque.
All our patients had single vessel, single lesion disease. Patients who underwent prior PCI or CABG were excluded from the study.