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Intracoronary thermography: Utility to detect vulnerable and culprit plaques in patients with coronary artery disease

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Abstract

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory process, and vulnerable plaques are characterized by an increased inflammatory infiltrate that generates heat. Intracoronary thermography (ICT) is a catheter-based technique for the functional imaging of atherosclerotic plaques, with the ability to identify potential vulnerable and culprit plaques in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). ICT is able to detect thermal heterogeneity, which has been shown to be present more often in unstable coronary plaques, and positively correlated to vulnerable plaque morphology characteristics and serum markers of systemic inflammation. ICT has also been shown to have a good predictive value for clinical events after percutaneous coronary intervention and has been used to assess response to statin therapy in patients with CAD. ICT has several important limitations and is yet to be validated in large prospective trials, but may be used in the future to detect vulnerable or culprit plaques and thus used to direct local and/or systemic therapy in patients with CAD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Lahey Clinic, 41 Mall Road, Burlington, MA, 01805, USA

    Sergio Waxman

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  1. Peter J. Larsen
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  2. Sergio Waxman
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Correspondence to Sergio Waxman.

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Larsen, P.J., Waxman, S. Intracoronary thermography: Utility to detect vulnerable and culprit plaques in patients with coronary artery disease. curr cardiovasc imaging rep 2, 300–306 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12410-009-0035-4

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