new understanding, diagnosis, and prognosis of atherothrombosis and the role of imaging

Inflammation as a Cardiovascular Risk Factor

“…58 Using high-resolution MRI, plaque regression and stabilization have been observed in the atherosclerotic rabbit treated with a selective PPAR-␥ activator. 60 These agents have recently been found to reduce levels of CRP in human subjects with type 2 diabetes, 61 in whom they were associated with declines in levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 and possible reduced CV risk.…”

Recent developments and new perspectives on imaging of atherosclerotic plaque: role of anatomical, cellular and molecular MRI Part I and II

“…Definitely, recent thrombosis has prognostic implications with regard to future acute coronary events [7]. Carotid thrombi were induced in swine by arterial injury and could be differentiated in recent and old thrombi by assessment of signal intensity on T2w at 1.5 T [52].…”

“…Many post-mortem examinations have revealed that the risk of plaque rupture (plaque vulnerability) depends mainly on plaque composition [1,5,7,8]. Vulnerable plaques have thin or eroded fibrous caps that overlay large lipid cores and harbour an abundance of inflammatory cells [1,5].…”

Angiogenesis: A link to Thrombosis in Athero-thrombotic Disease

“…While the vasa vasorum has often been overlooked as contributing to the atherosclerotic process, methods to directly visualize this vascular structure that normally provides nutrients and oxygen to the adventitial wall of medium and large sized arteries, reveal that during atherosclerosis, infiltration of microvessels into the media, intima and plaques, originates predominantly from proliferating vasa vasorum, rather than from the lumen, although the latter may also occur [10]. In that sense, the vasa vasorum provides a means whereby inflammatory cells and plasma constituents may access the plaque from the "outside", further accelerating plaque growth.…”