Abstract
BackgroundAtherosclerosis is a progressive disease that causes vascular remodeling that can be positive or negative. The evolution of arterial wall thickening and changes in lumen size under current "standard of care" in different arterial beds is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine arterial remodeling and progression/regression of atherosclerosis in aorta and carotid arteries of individuals at risk for atherosclerosis normalized over a 1-year period.MethodsIn this study, 28 patients underwent at least 2 black-blood in vivo cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) scans of aorta and carotids over a one-year period (Mean 17.8 ± 7.5 months). Clinical risk profiles for atherosclerosis and medications were documented and patients were followed by their referring physicians under current "standard of care" guidelines. Carotid and aortic wall lumen areas were matched across the time-points from cross-sectional images.ResultsThe wall area increased by 8.67%, 10.64%, and 13.24% per year (carotid artery, thoracic aorta and abdominal aorta respectively, p < 0.001). The lumen area of the abdominal aorta increased by 4.97% per year (p = 0.002), but the carotid artery and thoracic aorta lumen areas did not change significantly. The use of statin therapy did not change the rate of increase of wall area of carotid artery, thoracic and abdominal aorta, but decreased the rate of change of lumen area of carotid artery (-3.08 ± 11.34 vs. 0.19 ± 12.91 p < 0.05).ConclusionsResults of this study of multiple vascular beds indicated that different vascular locations exhibited varying progression of atherosclerosis and remodeling as monitored by CMR.
Highlights
Atherosclerosis is a progressive disease that causes vascular remodeling i.e. changes in the vessel wall of arteries [1]
cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) findings have been extensively validated against pathology in ex vivo studies of carotid, aorta, and coronary artery specimens obtained at autopsy and using experimental models of atherosclerosis [17,18,19]
This study demonstrates that in vivo CMR can quantify changes in atherosclerosis and remodeling simultaneously in multiple vascular beds, i.e., the carotid arteries, thoracic aorta, and abdominal aorta
Summary
Atherosclerosis is a progressive disease that causes vascular remodeling i.e. changes in the vessel wall of arteries [1]. The evolution of arterial wall thickening and changes in lumen size i.e., the natural progression/regression of disease under current “standard of care” in different arterial beds are unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine arterial remodeling and progression/regression of atherosclerosis in multiple vascular beds (aorta and carotid arteries) of individuals at risk for atherosclerosis over the entire artery of interest and not a specific lesion (carotids, abdominal aorta, thoracic aorta) normalized over a one-year period. The purpose of this study was to examine arterial remodeling and progression/ regression of atherosclerosis in aorta and carotid arteries of individuals at risk for atherosclerosis normalized over a 1-year period
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