Keywords:
Calcifications / Calculi, Arteriosclerosis, CAD, Diagnostic procedure, CT-Quantitative, CT-Angiography, Arteries / Aorta, Cardiovascular system, Cardiac, Haemodynamics / Flow dynamics
Authors:
V. Tuncay, J. K. van Zandwijk, R. Vliegenthart, M. Oudkerk, P. M. Van Ooijen, M. A. den Dekker, G. J. de Jonge, E. R. van den Heuvel; Groningen/NL
Purpose
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the leading causes of mortality in the Western world.
Plaque development in the coronary arteries has a very complex mechanism,
and its progression is influenced by mechanical,
biochemical,
and biological factors.
For example,
previous studies linked plaque development to wall shear stress.
Shear stress is dependent on the vessel geometry.
Plaques are more likely to develop at the inner curvature of a vessel and at vessel bifurcations.
Conventional invasive coronary angiography is the reference standard for coronary artery assessment,
but is limited by its invasiveness and two-dimensional projections.
Information about vessel geometry is therefore suboptimal.
Coronary computed tomography angiography (cCTA) has become the non-invasive method of choice for coronary assessment in recent years,
and allows physicians to obtain quantitative information about the coronary arteries from all perspectives.
There is limited information on the relationship of coronary artery geometry and plaque development from earlier studies using invasive imaging techniques.
The purpose of this study is to assess this relationship in more detail with non-invasive cCTA.