Abstract Objective Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) in adults is often caused by atherosclerotic plaques. CAE can affect atherosclerotic plaques through hemodynamic changes. However, no study has evaluated the characteristics of CAE with atherosclerotic plaques. Therefore, we aimed to disclose the characteristics of atherosclerotic plaques in patients with CAE using optical coherence tomography (OCT). Methods and results We evaluated patients with CAE, confirmed by coronary angiography, who underwent pre-intervention OCT between April 2015 and April 2021. Each millimeter of the OCT images was analyzed to assess the characteristics of CAEs, plaque phenotypes, and plaque vulnerability. A total of 286 patients (344 coronary vessels) met our criteria, 82.87% of whom were men. Right coronary artery lesions were the most common, comprising 44.48% (n = 153) of the total. We found 329 CAE vessels with plaques, accounting for 95.64% of the coronary vessels. After grouping CAEs and plaques by their relative positions, we found that the length of plaques within CAE lesions was longer than that of plaques in other sites (P < 0.001). Plaques within CAE lesions had greater maximum lipid angles and lipid indexes (P = 0.007, P = 0.004, respectively) than those on other sites. Conclusions This study revealed the most common vascular and morphological characteristics of CAE. While the accompanying plaques were not affected by the location or morphology of the CAE vessels, they were affected by their position relative to the CAE lesion.
Recent studies suggested plaque erosion with noncritical stenosis could be treated distinctly from that with critical stenosis, but their morphological features remained largely unknown. The present study aimed to investigate morphological features of eroded plaques with different lumen stenosis using optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) in adults is often caused by atherosclerotic plaques. CAE can affect atherosclerotic plaques through hemodynamic changes. However, no study has evaluated the characteristics of CAE with atherosclerotic plaques. Therefore, we aimed to disclose the characteristics of atherosclerotic plaques in patients with CAE using optical coherence tomography (OCT). We evaluated patients with CAE, confirmed by coronary angiography, who underwent pre-intervention OCT between April 2015 and April 2021. Each millimeter of the OCT images was analyzed to assess the characteristics of CAEs, plaque phenotypes, and plaque vulnerability. A total of 286 patients (344 coronary vessels) met our criteria, 82.87% of whom were men. Right coronary artery lesions were the most common, comprising 44.48% (n = 153) of the total. We found 329 CAE vessels with plaques, accounting for 95.64% of the coronary vessels. After grouping CAEs and plaques by their relative positions, we found that the length of plaques within CAE lesions was longer than that of plaques in other sites (P < 0.001). Plaques within CAE lesions had greater maximum lipid angles and lipid indexes (P = 0.007, P = 0.004, respectively) than those on other sites. This study revealed the most common vascular and morphological characteristics of CAE. While the accompanying plaques were not affected by the location or morphology of the CAE vessels, they were affected by their position relative to the CAE lesion.
Abstract Objective: Microchannels are associated with the progression of atherosclerotic vulnerable plaques. However, in patients with culprit optical coherence tomography (OCT)-defined plaque erosion, the knowledge of microchannels and culprit lesion vulnerability is limited. The aim of this study was to investigate culprit lesion characteristics in patients with ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) caused by plaque erosion with and without microchannels using OCT. Methods: In all, 348 STEMI patients with plaque erosion who underwent OCT of the culprit lesion at the 2 nd Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University (Harbin, China) from August 2014 to December 2017 were included and divided into the microchannel group ( n = 116, 33.3%) and no-microchannel group ( n = 232, 66.7%). The clinical characteristics and OCT-derived plaque features were compared between both groups. Results: Among the 348 STEMI patients with plaque erosion, culprit lesions with microchannels had higher incidence of lipid plaque (59.5% vs. 45.3%, P = 0.012); calcification (41.4% vs. 24.6%, P = 0.002); spotty calcification (30.2% vs. 18.1%, P = 0.014); macrophages accumulation (72.4% vs. 45.7%, P < 0.001); and cholesterol crystals (32.8% vs. 14.2%, P < 0.001) than those without microchannels. In addition, minimal lumen area was smaller ((1.9 ± 0.9) mm 2 vs. (2.8 ± 2.3) mm 2 , P < 0.001) and lumen area stenosis was greater ((71.3% ± 13.4%) vs. (65.3% ± 19.3%), P = 0.001) in the microchannel group than in the no-microchannel group. Conclusion: In patients with STEMI caused by plaque erosion, one-third manifested typical microchannel characteristics, and those with microchannels were associated with more severe luminal stenosis and more vulnerable plaque features than those without microchannels.
Previous studies have reported the value of quantitative flow ratio (QFR) to assess the physiological significance of non-culprit lesions (NCLs) in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients and of optical coherence tomography (OCT)-defined thin-cap fibroatheroma (TCFA) to identify non-culprit vulnerable plaques. We sought to systematically compare long-term NCL-related clinical prognosis in an AMI population utilising acute Murray fractal law-based QFR (μQFR) values and OCT-defined TCFA. Three-vessel OCT imaging and μQFR assessment were conducted in 645 AMI patients, identifying 1,320 intermediate NCLs in non-infarct-related arteries. The primary endpoint was a composite of cardiac death, NCL-related non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI), and NCL-related unplanned coronary revascularisation, with follow-up lasting up to 5 years. The primary endpoint occurred in 59 patients (11.1%). OCT-defined TCFA independently predicted patient-level (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 3.05, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.80-5.19) and NCL-specific primary endpoints (adjusted HR 4.46, 95% CI: 2.33-8.56). The highest event rate of 29.6% was observed in patients with NCLs that were TCFA (+) with μQFR ≤0.80, compared to 16.3% in those that were also TCFA (+) but with μQFR>0.80, 6.0% in those that were TCFA (-) with μQFR ≤0.80, and 6.6% in those that were TCFA (-) with μQFR>0.80 (log-rank p<0.001). TCFA was an independent predictor for the primary endpoint in ST-segment elevation MI (STEMI; adjusted HR 3.27, 95% CI: 1.67-6.41) and non-STEMI (adjusted HR 3.26, 95% CI: 1.24-8.54) patients, whereas μQFR ≤0.80 was not. When assessing NCLs during the index procedure in AMI patients, OCT-defined TCFA serves as the dominant prognostic predictor for long-term clinical outcomes, rather than μQFR-determined physiological significance.
Smoking is an important risk factor of plaque erosion. This study aimed to investigate the predictors of plaque erosion in current and non-current smokers presenting with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).Methods and Results:A total of 1,320 STEMI patients with culprit plaque rupture or plaque erosion detected by pre-intervention optical coherence tomography were divided into a current smoking group (n=715) and non-current smoking group (n=605). Plaque erosion accounted for 30.8% (220/715) of culprit lesions in the current smokers and 21.2% (128/605) in the non-current smokers. Multivariable analysis showed age <50 years, single-vessel disease and the absence of dyslipidemia were independently associated with plaque erosion rather than plaque rupture, regardless of smoking status. In current smokers, diabetes mellitus (odds ratio [OR]: 0.29; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.10-0.83; P=0.021) was negatively associated with plaque erosion as compared with plaque rupture. In non-current smokers, minimal lumen area (MLA, OR: 1.37; 95% CI: 1.16-1.62; P<0.001) and nearby bifurcation (OR: 3.20; 95% CI: 1.98-5.16; P<0.001) were positively related to plaque erosion, but not plaque rupture.In patients with STEMI, the presence of diabetes mellitus significantly increased the risk of rupture-based STEMI but may not have reduced the risk of plaque erosion-based STEMI in current smokers. Nearby bifurcation and larger MLA were associated with plaque erosion in non-current smokers.
Background The EROSION (Effective Anti-Thrombotic Therapy Without Stenting: Intravascular Optical Coherence Tomography-Based Management in Plaque Erosion) study demonstrated that antithrombotic therapy without stenting was safe and feasible in selected patients with acute coronary syndrome caused by plaque erosion. However, the factors related to the prognosis of these patients are not clear. This study aimed to explore the predictors of an adverse prognosis of a nonstent strategy in a larger sample size. Methods and Results A total of 252 (55 patients were from the EROSION study) patients with acute coronary syndrome with plaque erosion who met the inclusion criteria of the EROSION study and completed clinical follow-up were enrolled. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to the occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), which were defined as the composite of cardiac death, recurrent myocardial infarction, ischemia-driven target lesion revascularization, rehospitalization because of unstable or progressive angina, major bleeding, and stroke. Among 232 patients with acute coronary syndrome included in the final analysis, 50 patients (21.6%) developed MACE at a median follow-up of 2.9 years. Compared with patients without MACE, patients with MACE were older and had a higher degree of percentage of area stenosis (72.2%±9.4% versus 64.2%±15.7%, P<0.001) and thrombus burden (24.4%±10.4% versus 20.4%±10.9%, P=0.010) at baseline. Multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed that age, percentage of area stenosis, and thrombus burden were predictors of MACE. The best cutoff values of predictors were age ≥60 years, percentage of area stenosis ≥63.5%, and thrombus burden ≥18.5%, respectively, and when they were all present, the rate of MACE rose to 57.7%. Conclusions The nonstent treatment strategy of patients with acute coronary syndrome caused by plaque erosion was heterogeneous, and patients aged ≥60 years, percentage of area stenosis ≥63.5%, and thrombus burden ≥18.5% may predict a worse clinical outcome.
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