Journal of Personalized Medicine Review Personalized Assessment of the Coronary Atherosclerotic Arteries by Intravascular Ultrasound Imaging: Hunting the Vulnerable Plaque Theodore G. Papaioannou 1,*,†,‡, Charalampos Kalantzis 1,†, Efstratios Katsianos 1, Despina Sanoudou 2, Manolis Vavuranakis 3 and Dimitrios Tousoulis 1 1 Biomedical Engineering Unit, First Department of Cardiology, Hippokration Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece;
[email protected] (C.K.);
[email protected] (E.K.);
[email protected] (D.T.) 2 Fourth Department of Internal Medicine, “Attikon” Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 12462 Athens, Greece;
[email protected] 3 Third Department of Cardiology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +30-213-2088286; Fax: +30-213-2088676 † Equal first authorship. ‡ Current address: Biomedical Engineering Unit, First University Department of Cardiology, Hippokration Hospital, 114 Vas. Sophias ave., 11527 Athens, Greece. Received: 25 November 2018; Accepted: 21 January 2019; Published: 24 January 2019 Abstract: The term “vulnerable plaque” is commonly used to refer to an atherosclerotic plaque that is prone to rupture and the formation of thrombosis, which can lead to several cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. Coronary artery atherosclerosis has a wide variety of different phenotypes among patients who may have a substantially variable risk for plaque rupture and cardiovascular events. Mounting evidence has proposed three distinctive histopathological mechanisms: plaque rupture, plaque erosion and calcified nodules. Studies have demonstrated the characteristics of plaques with high vulnerability such as the presence of a thin fibrous cap, a necrotic lipid-rich core, abundant infiltrating macrophages and neovascularization.