Percent atheroma volume: Optimal variable to report whole-heart atherosclerotic plaque burden with coronary CTA, the PARADIGM study
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1-2020
Publication Title
Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography
Abstract
Background and aims: Different methodologies to report whole-heart atherosclerotic plaque on coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) have been utilized. We examined which of the three commonly used plaque burden definitions was least affected by differences in body surface area (BSA) and sex.
Methods: The PARADIGM study includes symptomatic patients with suspected coronary atherosclerosis who underwent serial CCTA >2 years apart. Coronary lumen, vessel, and plaque were quantified from the coronary tree on a 0.5 mm cross-sectional basis by a core-lab, and summed to per-patient. Three quantitative methods of plaque burden were employed: (1) total plaque volume (PV) in mm3, (2) percent atheroma volume (PAV) in % [which equaled: PV/vessel volume * 100%], and (3) normalized total atheroma volume (TAVnorm) in mm3 [which equaled: PV/vessel length * mean population vessel length]. Only data from the baseline CCTA were used. PV, PAV, and TAVnorm were compared between patients in the top quartile of BSA vs the remaining, and between sexes. Associations between vessel volume, BSA, and the three plaque burden methodologies were assessed.
Results: The study population comprised 1479 patients (age 60.7 ± 9.3 years, 58.4% male) who underwent CCTA. A total of 17,649 coronary artery segments were evaluated with a median of 12 (IQR 11-13) segments per-patient (from a 16-segment coronary tree). Patients with a large BSA (top quartile), compared with the remaining patients, had a larger PV and TAVnorm, but similar PAV. The relation between larger BSA and larger absolute plaque volume (PV and TAVnorm) was mediated by the coronary vessel volume. Independent from the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk (ASCVD) score, vessel volume correlated with PV (P < 0.001), and TAVnorm (P = 0.003), but not with PAV (P = 0.201). The three plaque burden methods were equally affected by sex.
Conclusions: PAV was less affected by patient's body surface area then PV and TAVnorm and may be the preferred method to report coronary atherosclerotic burden.
Volume
14
Issue
5
First Page
400
Last Page
406
Recommended Citation
van Rosendael AR, Lin FY, Ma X, van den Hoogen IJ, Gianni U, Al Hussein O, Al'Aref SJ, Peña JM, Andreini D, Al-Mallah MH, Budoff MJ, Cademartiri F, Chinnaiyan K, Choi JH, Conte E, Marques H, de Araújo Gonçalves P, Gottlieb I, Hadamitzky M, Leipsic JA, Maffei E, Pontone G, Raff GL, Shin S, Kim YJ, Lee BK, Chun EJ, Sung JM, Lee SE, Berman DS, Virmani R, Samady H, Stone PH, Narula J, Bax JJ, Shaw LJ, Min JK, Chang HJ. Percent atheroma volume: Optimal variable to report whole-heart atherosclerotic plaque burden with coronary CTA, the PARADIGM study. J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr. 2020 Sep-Oct;14(5):400-406. doi: 10.1016/j.jcct.2020.01.012. Epub 2020 Jan 30. PMID: 32063545.
DOI
10.1016/j.jcct.2020.01.012
ISSN
19345925
PubMed ID
24148779