Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography Assessment of High-Risk Plaques in Predicting Acute Coronary Syndrome

Guanyu Lu; Weitao Ye; Jiehao Ou; Xinyun Li; Zekun Tan; Tingyu Li; Hui Liu

doi:10.3389/fcvm.2021.743538

Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography Assessment of High-Risk Plaques in Predicting Acute Coronary Syndrome

Front Cardiovasc Med. 2021 Oct 1:8:743538. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2021.743538. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Guanyu Lu^{1

2}, Weitao Ye¹, Jiehao Ou¹, Xinyun Li¹, Zekun Tan¹, Tingyu Li¹, Hui Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
² College of Medicine, Shantou University, Shantou, China.

Abstract

Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is a comprehensive, non-invasive and cost-effective imaging assessment approach, which can provide the ability to identify the characteristics and morphology of high-risk atherosclerotic plaques associated with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The development of CCTA and latest advances in emerging technologies, such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), have made it possible not only to identify the morphological characteristics of high-risk plaques non-invasively, but also to assess the hemodynamic parameters, the environment surrounding coronaries and so on, which may help to predict the risk of ACS. In this review, we present how CCTA was used to characterize the composition and morphology of high-risk plaques prone to ACS and the current role of CCTA, including emerging CCTA technologies, advanced analysis, and characterization techniques in prognosticating the occurrence of ACS.

Keywords: acute coronary syndrome (ACS); computational fluid dynamics–CFD; coronary artery; coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA); high-risk plaque; pericoronary adipose tissue attenuation.

Publication types

Review