Correlation between coronary artery stenosis and plaque type by CT angiography with 64-detector row CT

ZHAO Qian; LIU Li; LI Ying; ZHOU Yan; NING Dan-dan; GE Mingmei; WU Xinhuai

Abstract：Objective To evaluate the relationship between coronary stenosis and plaque type with CT angiography of 64-de-tector row CT.Methods Consecutive cases of coronary CT angiography were reviewed retrospectively.Coronary segmental evalu-ation was performed according to AHA classi cation and subdivision of coronary arteries into 15 segments.Coronary artery luminal stenosis was partitioned into five grades: grade 0(normal coronary artery), grade 1(1%~29% stenosis), grade 2(30%~49%stenosis),grade 3(50%~69% stenosis), grade 4(70%~99% stenosis), and grade 5(100% stenosis).Coronary plaques were classified into three types based on CT attenuation value(HU): non-calcified,calcified, and mixed plaques.Re-sults One hundred and twenty-three subjects were enrolled in our study and 1740 coronry segments were analysed.Coronary ste-nosis showed obvious correlation with plaque type(r =0.834,P =0.000).The percentage of the mixed plaques showed an in-creasing trend with coronary stenosis increasing.There was significant differernce in distribution of three plaque type among coro-nary stenosis grades 0~2.However, there was no significant correlation among stenosis grade 3~5.Calcified plaques showed more frequently in stenosis grade 2,and less frequently in grade 3~5.Conclusion There was obvious correlation between coro-nary stenosis and plaque type.There was significant differences in distribution of plaque types among different coronary stenosis grades.The role of calcification in the process of coronary atherosclerosis is complicated.