Makoto Araki1, Taishi Yonetsu2, Osamu Kurihara1, Akihiro Nakajima1, Hang Lee3, Tsunenari Soeda4, Yoshiyasu Minami5, Iris McNulty1, Shiro Uemura6, Tsunekazu Kakuta7, Ik-Kyung Jang8. 1. Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 2. Department of Interventional Cardiology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: yonetsu@gmail.com. 3. Biostatistics Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 4. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Nara, Japan. 5. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kitasato University School of Medicine, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan. 6. Department of Cardiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Kurashiki, Japan. 7. Department of Cardiology, Tsuchiura Kyodo General Hospital, Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, Japan. 8. Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Division of Cardiology, Kyung Hee University Hospital, Seoul, South Korea. Electronic address: ijang@mgh.harvard.edu.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: This study sought to identify morphological predictors of rapid plaque progression. BACKGROUND: Two patterns of plaque progression have been described: slow linear progression and rapid step-wise progression. The former pattern will cause stable angina when the narrowing reaches a critical threshold, whereas the latter pattern may lead to acute coronary syndromes or sudden cardiac death. METHODS: Patients who underwent optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging during the index procedure and follow-up angiography with a minimum interval of 6 months were selected. Nonculprit lesions with a diameter stenosis of ≥30% on index angiography were assessed. Lesion progression was defined as a decrease of angiographic minimum lumen diameter ≥0.4 mm at follow-up (mean, 7.1 months). Baseline morphological characteristics of plaques with rapid progression were evaluated by OCT. In a subgroup with follow-up OCT imaging for plaques with rapid progression, morphological changes from baseline to follow-up were assessed. RESULTS: Among 517 lesions in 248 patients, 50 lesions showed rapid progression. These lesions had a significantly higher prevalence of lipid-rich plaque (76.0% vs. 50.5%, respectively), thin-cap fibroatheroma (TCFA) (20.0% vs. 5.8%, respectively), layered plaque (60.0% vs. 34.0%, respectively), macrophage accumulation (62.0% vs. 42.4%, respectively), microvessel (46.0% vs. 29.1%, respectively), plaque rupture (12.0% vs. 4.7%, respectively), and thrombus (6.0% vs. 1.1%, respectively) at baseline compared with those without rapid progression. Multivariate analysis identified lipid-rich plaque (odds ratio [OR]: 2.17; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02 to 4.62; p = 0.045]), TCFA (OR: 5.85; 95% CI: 2.01 to 17.03; p = 0.001), and layered plaque (OR: 2.19; 95% CI: 1.03 to 4.17; p = 0.040) as predictors of subsequent rapid lesion progression. In a subgroup analysis for plaques with rapid progression, a new layer was detected in 25 of 41 plaques (61.0%) at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Lipid-rich plaques, TCFA, and layered plaques were predictors of subsequent rapid plaque progression. A new layer, a signature of previous plaque disruption and healing, was detected in more than half of the lesions with rapid progression at follow-up. (Massachusetts General Hospital Optical Coherence Tomography Registry; NCT01110538).
OBJECTIVES: This study sought to identify morphological predictors of rapid plaque progression. BACKGROUND: Two patterns of plaque progression have been described: slow linear progression and rapid step-wise progression. The former pattern will cause stable angina when the narrowing reaches a critical threshold, whereas the latter pattern may lead to acute coronary syndromes or sudden cardiac death. METHODS: Patients who underwent optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging during the index procedure and follow-up angiography with a minimum interval of 6 months were selected. Nonculprit lesions with a diameter stenosis of ≥30% on index angiography were assessed. Lesion progression was defined as a decrease of angiographic minimum lumen diameter ≥0.4 mm at follow-up (mean, 7.1 months). Baseline morphological characteristics of plaques with rapid progression were evaluated by OCT. In a subgroup with follow-up OCT imaging for plaques with rapid progression, morphological changes from baseline to follow-up were assessed. RESULTS: Among 517 lesions in 248 patients, 50 lesions showed rapid progression. These lesions had a significantly higher prevalence of lipid-rich plaque (76.0% vs. 50.5%, respectively), thin-cap fibroatheroma (TCFA) (20.0% vs. 5.8%, respectively), layered plaque (60.0% vs. 34.0%, respectively), macrophage accumulation (62.0% vs. 42.4%, respectively), microvessel (46.0% vs. 29.1%, respectively), plaque rupture (12.0% vs. 4.7%, respectively), and thrombus (6.0% vs. 1.1%, respectively) at baseline compared with those without rapid progression. Multivariate analysis identified lipid-rich plaque (odds ratio [OR]: 2.17; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02 to 4.62; p = 0.045]), TCFA (OR: 5.85; 95% CI: 2.01 to 17.03; p = 0.001), and layered plaque (OR: 2.19; 95% CI: 1.03 to 4.17; p = 0.040) as predictors of subsequent rapid lesion progression. In a subgroup analysis for plaques with rapid progression, a new layer was detected in 25 of 41 plaques (61.0%) at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Lipid-rich plaques, TCFA, and layered plaques were predictors of subsequent rapid plaque progression. A new layer, a signature of previous plaque disruption and healing, was detected in more than half of the lesions with rapid progression at follow-up. (Massachusetts General Hospital Optical Coherence Tomography Registry; NCT01110538).
Authors: Makoto Araki; Seung-Jung Park; Harold L Dauerman; Shiro Uemura; Jung-Sun Kim; Carlo Di Mario; Thomas W Johnson; Giulio Guagliumi; Adnan Kastrati; Michael Joner; Niels Ramsing Holm; Fernando Alfonso; William Wijns; Tom Adriaenssens; Holger Nef; Gilles Rioufol; Nicolas Amabile; Geraud Souteyrand; Nicolas Meneveau; Edouard Gerbaud; Maksymilian P Opolski; Nieves Gonzalo; Guillermo J Tearney; Brett Bouma; Aaron D Aguirre; Gary S Mintz; Gregg W Stone; Christos V Bourantas; Lorenz Räber; Sebastiano Gili; Kyoichi Mizuno; Shigeki Kimura; Toshiro Shinke; Myeong-Ki Hong; Yangsoo Jang; Jin Man Cho; Bryan P Yan; Italo Porto; Giampaolo Niccoli; Rocco A Montone; Vikas Thondapu; Michail I Papafaklis; Lampros K Michalis; Harmony Reynolds; Jacqueline Saw; Peter Libby; Giora Weisz; Mario Iannaccone; Tommaso Gori; Konstantinos Toutouzas; Taishi Yonetsu; Yoshiyasu Minami; Masamichi Takano; O Christopher Raffel; Osamu Kurihara; Tsunenari Soeda; Tomoyo Sugiyama; Hyung Oh Kim; Tetsumin Lee; Takumi Higuma; Akihiro Nakajima; Erika Yamamoto; Krzysztof L Bryniarski; Luca Di Vito; Rocco Vergallo; Francesco Fracassi; Michele Russo; Lena M Seegers; Iris McNulty; Sangjoon Park; Marc Feldman; Javier Escaned; Francesco Prati; Eloisa Arbustini; Fausto J Pinto; Ron Waksman; Hector M Garcia-Garcia; Akiko Maehara; Ziad Ali; Aloke V Finn; Renu Virmani; Annapoorna S Kini; Joost Daemen; Teruyoshi Kume; Kiyoshi Hibi; Atsushi Tanaka; Takashi Akasaka; Takashi Kubo; Satoshi Yasuda; Kevin Croce; Juan F Granada; Amir Lerman; Abhiram Prasad; Evelyn Regar; Yoshihiko Saito; Mullasari Ajit Sankardas; Vijayakumar Subban; Neil J Weissman; Yundai Chen; Bo Yu; Stephen J Nicholls; Peter Barlis; Nick E J West; Armin Arbab-Zadeh; Jong Chul Ye; Jouke Dijkstra; Hang Lee; Jagat Narula; Filippo Crea; Sunao Nakamura; Tsunekazu Kakuta; James Fujimoto; Valentin Fuster; Ik-Kyung Jang Journal: Nat Rev Cardiol Date: 2022-04-21 Impact factor: 49.421