Background: Thin-cap fibroatheroma is a rupture-prone vulnerable plaque that leads to acute coronary syndrome (ACS). However, its underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Several studies have investigated the clinical association between angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) and coronary artery disease. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the correlation of plasma ANGPTL4 in culprit lesion of ACS patients using intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and virtual-histology IVUS (VH-IVUS).
Methods: Fifty patients newly diagnosed with ACS between March to September 2021 were selected. Blood samples for baseline laboratory tests, including ANGPTL4, were collected before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and all pre- and post-PCI IVUS examinations were performed of the culprit lesions.
Results: Linear regression analysis between plasma ANGPTL4 and grayscale IVUS/VH-IVUS parameters revealed that plasma ANGPTL4 was strongly correlated with the necrotic core (NC) of the minimal lumen site (r = -0.666, p = 0.003) and largest NC site (r = -0.687, p < 0.001), and patients with lower plasma ANGPTL4 levels showed a significantly higher proportion of TFCA.
Conclusion: The present study further demonstrated the protective role of ANGPTL4 in the spectrum of atherosclerotic development in patients with ACS by culprit lesion morphology analysis using IVUS and VH-IVUS.
Keywords: Acute coronary syndrome; Angiopoietin-like protein 4; Intravascular ultrasound.
Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.