Early identification of high-risk or vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques prone to rupture and performing preemptive therapy prior to catastrophic cardiovascular events are optimal goals of plaque imaging. Despite the advances in imaging modalities to identify vulnerable characteristics, the predictive value of the imaging techniques in the clinical setting is still developing. In this regard, reliable and high-sensitive imaging modalities identifying vulnerable plaque characters that may lead to future cardiovascular events will be useful. In this review article, we describe a current non-invasive plaque imaging technique to identify high-risk coronary plaque features.
Keywords: Cardiac magnetic resonance; Computed tomography Angiography; Coronary artery; Plaque imaging; Positron emission tomography.