%0 Journal Article
%T Site-specific intravascular ultrasound analysis of remodelling index and calcified necrosis patterns reveals novel blueprints for coronary plaque instability
%A Billal Patel
%A Nicholas D. Palmer
%A Raphael A. Perry
%A Rodney H. Stables
%A Scott W. Murray
%J SCIE-indexed Journal
%D 2014
%X Post-mortem pathological studies have shown that a ”°vulnerable”± plaque is the dominant patho-physiological mechanism responsible for acute coronary syndromes (ACS) (1-3). However, despite this knowledge, we have not yet reached a stage in our diagnostic ability where we are able to predict an event. One way to image plaques in vivo is by using histological ”°surrogates”± created by intravascular ultrasound derived virtual histology (IVUS-VH) (4). IVUS-VH has been validated in human pathological studies and atherectomy specimens and is based upon the analysis of ultrasound backscatter as different plaque components produce a particular spectrum (5-7). The power, amplitude and frequency of the signal undergo de-convolution through a trained classification tree. This process transforms signals into four colour-coded pixels: fibrous (green); fibro-fatty tissue (light green); necrotic core (red) and dense calcium (white). This has been found to correlate with histopathology and atherectomy specimens (predictive accuracy =87.1%, 87.1%, 88.3%, and 96.5% for fibrous, fibro-fatty, necrotic core, and dense calcium, respectively) (5-7)
%U http://cdt.amegroups.com/article/view/4346/5205