Morphological Features and Plaque Composition in Culprit Atheromatous Plaques of Patients with Acute Coronary Syndromes

Abstract

Background: The independent role of each plaque feature in relation to plaque vulnerability is still the subject of ongoing research. This study aimed to compare the morphologic characteristics of vulnerable atheromatous coronary plaques with the ones of stable, non-vulnerable plaques, and in plaques with different locations in the coronary tree, in order to identify the most relevant imaging-based biomarkers associated with coronary plaque vulnerability.

Keywords

• atheromatous plaque
• vulnerability
• morphologic characteristics
• acute coronary syndrome