Page 37 - JCTR-9-4

Journal of Clinical and Translational Research 2023; 9(4): 253-260

Journal of Clinical and Translational Research

Journal homepage: http://www.jctres.com/en/home

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Association between carotid and coronary atherosclerotic plaque

morphology: a virtual histology intravascular ultrasound study

Dace Sondore , Kārlis Trušinskis , Matīss Linde *, Ieva Briede , Inga Narbute , Sanda Jēgere , Kārlis Griķis ,
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1
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Kārlis Štrenge , Andrejs Ērglis 1,3
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1 Latvian Centre of Cardiology, Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia, Department of Internal Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Riga
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Stradins University, Riga, Latvia, Department of Cardiology and Cardiosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia.
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ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Article history: Background and Aim: Atherosclerosis is considered to be a systemic disease; however, evidence
Received: February 14, 2023 exists on the heterogeneous nature of atherosclerotic disease. To date, continuous research seeks to
Revised: April 22, 2023 determine the morphological differences between carotid and coronary artery disease. This study
Accepted: May 22, 2023 aimed to evaluate the relationship of morphological characteristics assessed by virtual histology
Published online: July 12, 2023 intravascular ultrasound (VH-IVUS) between carotid and coronary plaque composition among
patients with and without a history of cerebrovascular events.
Keywords: Methods: This study was a single-center prospective study (n = 100; age 69.6 ± 8.4). All patients were
Atherosclerosis scheduled for carotid or coronary artery stenting and underwent VH-IVUS examination of the carotid
Virtual histology and coronary arteries before intervention.
Percutaneous coronary intervention Results: There was a modest, but statistically significant correlation between the carotid and coronary
Carotid artery stenting necrotic core ([NC] r = 0.46, P < 0.01), fibrofatty ([FF] r = 0.38, P < 0.01), dense calcium (r = 0.56,
P < 0.01), and fibrous (r = 0.42, P < 0.01) plaque composition. The high amount of NC was detected
*Corresponding authors: in both arteries of the carotid artery stenting (CAS) group with higher proportion in the coronary
Matīss Linde artery (20.2% ± 9.4 % vs. 22.7% ± 6.8%, P = 0.02). More fibrolipid content was observed in carotid
Faculty of Medicine, Riga Stradins University, plaque compared to coronary (19.6% ± 9.9% vs. 12.2% ± 8.1%, P < 0.01). Patients with a history of
Riga, Latvia. cerebrovascular events had a numerically greater proportion of necrotic tissue in the carotid artery
Tel: +371 28141749 compared to asymptomatic and symptomatic CAS group patients (23.5% ± 10.7% vs. 18.9% ± 8.2%
Email: matiss.linde@rsu.lv and 18.7% ± 9.5%, P = 0.11).
Conclusion: The percentage of all analyzed plaque components was moderately correlated between
© 2023 Author(s). This is an Open-Access coronary and carotid artery plaques. Nevertheless, the proportion of NC plaque tissue was greater in
article distributed under the terms of the the coronary arteries, while the carotid arteries showed more %FF atherosclerotic lesions. CAS group
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial patients with a history of cerebrovascular events had a tendency of greater proportion of necrotic
License, permitting all non-commercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, tissue in analyzed carotid plaques compared to others in the CAS group.
provided the original work is properly cited. Relevance for Patients: In this study, we found that patients with a history of cerebrovascular event
had a tendency of increased NC content in culprit lesion of carotid artery. Complementary use of non-
invasive and invasive imaging modalities allows to detect high-risk atherosclerotic plaques and adjust
treatment strategy.

1. Introduction

Atherosclerosis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease affecting the arterial wall
throughout the human body. Common clinical manifestations are ischemic cardiovascular
events, such as cerebrovascular accidents and myocardial infarctions, which are the results
of atherosclerotic changes in the extracranial carotid and coronary arteries. Associations

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18053/jctres.09.202304.23-00030