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High shear stress on the coronary arterial wall is related to computed tomography-derived high-risk plaque: a three-dimensional computed tomography and color-coded tissue-characterizing intravascular ultrasonography study

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Abstract

Low wall shear stress (WSS) is associated with plaque formation. However, the relationship between WSS and coronary plaque vulnerability remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify the in vivo relationship between luminal WSS derived from three-dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT) and plaque vulnerability within the coronary artery. Forty-three consecutive patients with ischemic heart disease and coronary stenotic lesions were enrolled and underwent coronary angiography and color-coded intravascular ultrasonography (iMap™) followed by multi-slice coronary CT angiography. CT-derived high-risk plaque was defined by specific CT characteristics, including low CT intensity (< 30 HU) and positive remodeling. The Student’s t test, Mann–Whitney U test, χ2 test, repeated measures analysis of variance, and logistic and multiple regression were used for statistical analyses. CT-derived high-risk plaque (n = 15) had higher values of maximum and average shear stress than CT-derived stable plaque (474 ± 453 vs. 158 ± 138 Pa, p = 0.018; 4.2 ± 3.1 vs. 1.6 ± 1.2 Pa, p = 0.007, respectively). Compared with patients with CT-derived stable plaque, those with CT-derived high-risk plaque had a higher prevalence of necrotic and lipidic characteristics (44 ± 13 vs. 31 ± 11%, p = 0.001) based on iMap™. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the average WSS and necrotic plus lipidic content were independent determinants of CT-derived high-risk plaque (average WSS: odds ratio 2.996, p = 0.014; necrotic plus lipidic content: odds ratio 1.306, p = 0.036). Our findings suggested that CT-derived high-risk plaque may coexist with high shear stress on the plaque surface.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank all staff of the catheterization unit at Nihon University Itabashi Hospital.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine, 30-1 Oyaguchi-Kamicho Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-8610, Japan

    Nobuhiro Murata, Takafumi Hiro, Tadateru Takayama, Suguru Migita, Tomoyuki Morikawa, Takehiro Tamaki, Takashi Mineki, Keisuke Kojima, Naotaka Akutsu, Mitsumasa Sudo, Daisuke Kitano, Daisuke Fukamachi, Atsushi Hirayama & Yasuo Okumura

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  1. Nobuhiro Murata
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  2. Takafumi Hiro
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Correspondence to Takafumi Hiro.

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The authors declare no financial relationships or conflicts of interest regarding the content herein, with the exception of Dr. Hiro, Dr. Hirayama and Dr. Okumura who also work for a department endowed by Boston-Scientific Japan Co., Ltd. at Nihon University School of Medicine. This work was partly supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 16K09481) of the Ministry of Education, Japan.

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Murata, N., Hiro, T., Takayama, T. et al. High shear stress on the coronary arterial wall is related to computed tomography-derived high-risk plaque: a three-dimensional computed tomography and color-coded tissue-characterizing intravascular ultrasonography study. Heart Vessels 34, 1429–1439 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-019-01389-y

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