Possible assessment of coronary plaque morphology before and after treatment with statin by multislice spiral computed tomographic coronary angiography—A case report

Abstract

The case of a 58-year-old man with a previous anterior wall myocardial infarction and direct stenting who underwent multislice spiral computed tomographic (MSCT) coronary angiography with a row of 16 detectors before and after nine months of treatment with a statin is presented. MSCT coronary angiogram showed no significant stenosis in the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery, including the stented portion, and stress myocardial perfusion imaging showed that there was no ischemia. However, MSCT coronary images showed a lipid-rich plaque in the proximal portion of the stent implantation site in the LAD with a density of 17 Hounsfield units (HU) and with a size of 1.5 × 1.5 × 2.0 mm. MSCT coronary images obtained after nine months of treatment with pitavastatin showed that the plaque was smaller and had a density of 114 HU. MSCT coronary angiography allowed us to evaluate coronary artery plaque morphology before and after treatment with pitavastatin.