Non-invasive Detection of Vulnerable Plaque Using

SPIO Enhanced MRI

Everybody has atherosclerosis, the question is who has Vulnerable Plaque

The Online Cardiovascular Research Community

www.VulnerablePlaque.org

All slides will be available on:

Vulnerable Plaque?

Atherosclerotic plaques that cause sudden luminal clot formation and lead to heart attack and stroke.

Different Types of Vulnerable Plaque As underlying Cause of Acute Coronary Events

NormalRupture-prone

Fissured ErodedCritical Stenosis Hemorrhage

Carotid artery plaqueCCA

Carotid bifurcation

ICA stenosis & plaque

Courtesy of

Dr. Chun Yuan University of Washington, Seattle

Plaque Morphology Vs.

Plaque Activity

Why do we need to go beyond morphological assessment of plaques? Why do we need both?

The short answer is: because not all plaques with similar morphology would result in similar outcome.

SPIO Super Paramagnetic Iron Oxide

Colloidal coated particles of iron oxide, e.g. dextran coated SPIO (Feridex I.V.)

Weissleder R et al. (1997)

Schmitz et al J. Inv. Radiol. 2000

Non-invasive MRI study of atherosclerotic plaques using SPIO (pre and post injection comparison) may be a likely method for detection of vulnerable plaques

Further studies particularly human clinical trials are warranted

SPIO Clinical Trial:- The first human clinical trial on

detection of carotid vulnerable plaque using SPIO in patients undergoing carotid endartherectomy

Baseline

Scan

SPIO Injection

1hr post-injection

5days

ScanSurgery

WWW.HotPlaque.Com