Demonstration of Intraluminal Thrombus in the Carotid Artery by Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

OCT may provide useful information for diagnosis of an intraluminal thrombus in the carotid artery, which is important for the appropriate selection of therapeutic strategy.

Visualization of Internal Carotid Artery Atherosclerotic Plaques in Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Patients: A Comparison of Optical Coherence Tomography and Intravascular Ultrasound

“…Symptomatic carotid plaques showed intraluminal thrombus more frequently than asymptomatic plaques. To date, limited information has been available regarding the tissue characteristics of human carotid arteries on OCT. 8 The present study provides important information on the findings of carotid plaques by using OCT in relation to ischemic symptoms.…”

“…The typical OCT image has an axial resolution of 10 m, approximately 10 times higher than that of any other clinically available diagnostic imaging technique such as IVUS, with a resolution of 80 m. 3 Therefore, despite the need for removing blood from the FOV, in vivo application of OCT has been reported for the coronary arteries [4][5][6][7] and, more recently, in the carotid artery. 8,9 The present study evaluated the ability of OCT to visualize structures of the carotid artery wall in comparison with IVUS and to evaluate differences between symptomatic and asymptomatic plaques.…”

Intravascular Frequency-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Assessment of Atherosclerosis and Stent-Vessel Interactions in Human Carotid Arteries

“…33 On the basis of known optical properties of different materials, tissue depicting poor signals on OCT images is likely composed of fibrin or organized thrombus, 34 though highly organized proteoglycan could also provide similar images. 35 Yoshimura et al 36 initially described the use of carotid OCT with balloon occlusion to clarify an ambiguous carotid angiogram in 2010. More recently, the use of OCT to evaluate carotid artery stent placement was reported in 7 patients for whom the authors emphasized the necessity of proximal balloon occlusion (complicated by symptomatic cerebral ischemia in 1 patient) to obtain acceptable images.…”

Comparison between Preoperative Optical Coherence Tomography Findings of Carotid Artery Stenosis and Pathological Specimen of Removed Carotid Plaque: Case Report

“…OCT has been used to characterize plaque in coronary intervention, and it has recently been applied for the characterization of carotid plaque. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] However, few studies have compared OCT findings with findings from histopathologic examination of carotid plaques.…”