Coronary Artery Intraplaque Microvessels by Optical Coherence Tomography Correlate With Vulnerable Plaque and Predict Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Ischemic Angina
Xu T, Lin L, Chen SL et al.

KEYWORDS
Coronary Artery Intraplaque Microvessels; OCT; Vulnerable Plaque; Outcome; Ischemic Angina

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by increased requirements of oxygen supply with cells in the plaque, which will promote the invasion of the vessel wall by the vasa vasorum and lead to the formation of newly restructured microvessels (MVs) in the plaque. MV formation is reported to be correlated with the vulnerability of plaques. We analyzed the prevalence and clinical relevance of MVs in patients with coronary artery disease.