A new understanding of coronary curvature and haemodynamic impact on the course of plaque onset and progression

Abstract

The strong link between atherosclerosis and luminal biomechanical stresses is well established. Yet, this understanding has not translated into preventative coronary diagnostic imaging, particularly due to the under-explored role of coronary anatomy and haemodynamics in plaque onset, which we aim to address with this work. The left coronary trees of 20 non-stenosed (%diameter stenosis [%DS] = 0), 12 moderately (0 0.711. Coronary trees with moderate or severe stenoses differed only in %LowTAESS (p = 0.009) and %HighRRT (p = 0.012). This suggests TSVI, curvature and %HighOSI are potential factors driving plaque onset, with greater predictive performance than the previously recognized %LowTAESS and %HighRRT, which appears to play a role in plaque progression.

Keywords

• coronary artery disease
• atherosclerosis
• stenosis
• anatomical characteristics
• computational fluid dynamics