Quantitative measurement of lipid rich plaque by coronary computed tomography angiography: A correlation of histology in sudden cardiac death

Authors

Donghee Han, New York Presbyterian Hospital
Sho Torii, CVPath Institute, Inc.
Kazuyuki Yahagi, CVPath Institute, Inc.
Fay Y. Lin, New York Presbyterian Hospital
Ji Hyun Lee, New York Presbyterian Hospital
Asim Rizvi, New York Presbyterian Hospital
Heidi Gransar, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Mahn Won Park, New York Presbyterian Hospital
Hadi Mirhedayati Roudsari, New York Presbyterian Hospital
Wijnand J. Stuijfzand, New York Presbyterian Hospital
Lohendran Baskaran, New York Presbyterian Hospital
Bríain ó Hartaigh, New York Presbyterian Hospital
Hyung bok Park, Yonsei University College of Medicine
Sang eun Lee, Yonsei University College of Medicine
Zabiullah Ali, Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
Robert Kutys, CVPath Institute, Inc.
Hyuk Jae Chang, Yonsei University College of Medicine
James P. Earls, Fairfax Radiological Consultants
David Fowler, Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
Renu Virmani, CVPath Institute, Inc.
James K. Min, New York Presbyterian Hospital

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

8-1-2018

Journal

Atherosclerosis

Volume

275

DOI

10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2018.05.024

Keywords

Atherosclerosis; Coronary computed tomography angiography; Histology; Lipid rich plaque; Necrotic core

Abstract

© 2018 Background and aims: Recent advancements in coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) have allowed for the quantitative measurement of high-risk lipid rich plaque. Determination of the optimal threshold for Hounsfield units (HU) by CCTA for identifying lipid rich plaque remains unknown. We aimed to validate reliable cut-points of HU for quantitative assessment of lipid rich plaque. Methods: 8 post-mortem sudden coronary death hearts were evaluated with CCTA and histologic analysis. Quantitative plaque analysis was performed in histopathology images and lipid rich plaque area was defined as intra-plaque necrotic core area. CCTA images were analyzed for quantitative plaque measurement. Low attenuation plaque (LAP) was defined as any pixel < 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 HU cut-offs within a coronary plaque. The area of LAP was calculated in each cross-section. Results: Among 105 cross-sections, 37 (35.2%) cross-sectional histology images contained lipid rich plaque. Although the highest specificity for identifying lipid rich plaque was shown with <30 HU cut-off (88.2%), sensitivity (e.g. 55.6% for <75 HU, 16.2% for <30 HU) and negative predictive value (e.g. 75.9% for <75 HU, 65.9% for <30 HU) tended to increase with higher HU cut-offs. For quantitative measurement, <75 HU showed the highest correlation coefficient (0.292, p = 0.003) and no significant differences were observed between lipid rich plaque area and LAP area between histology and CT analysis (Histology: 0.34 ± 0.73 mm 2 , QCT: 0.37 ± 0.71 mm 2 , p = 0.701). Conclusions: LAP area by CCTA using a <75 HU cut-off value demonstrated high sensitivity and quantitative agreement with lipid rich plaque area by histology analysis.

APA Citation

Han, D., Torii, S., Yahagi, K., Lin, F., Lee, J., Rizvi, A., Gransar, H., Park, M., Roudsari, H., Stuijfzand, W., Baskaran, L., ó Hartaigh, B., Park, H., Lee, S., Ali, Z., Kutys, R., Chang, H., Earls, J., Fowler, D., Virmani, R., & Min, J. (2018). Quantitative measurement of lipid rich plaque by coronary computed tomography angiography: A correlation of histology in sudden cardiac death. Atherosclerosis, 275 (). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2018.05.024