Clinical and laboratory predictors for plaque erosion in patients with acute coronary syndromes

Background-—Plaque erosion is responsible for 25% to 40% of patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Recent studies suggest that anti-thrombotic therapy without stenting may be an option for this subset of patients. Currently, however, an invasive procedure is required to make a diagnosis of plaque erosion. The aim of this study was to identify clinical or laboratory predictors of plaque erosion in patients with ACS to enable a diagnosis of erosion without additional invasive procedures. Methods and Results-—Patients with ACS who underwent optical coherence tomography imaging were selected from 11 institutions in 6 countries. The patients were classified into plaque rupture, plaque erosion, or calcified plaque, and predictors were identified using multivariable logistic modeling. Among 1241 patients with ACS, 477 (38.4%) patients were found to have plaque erosion. Plaque erosion was more frequent in non–ST-segment elevation-ACS than in ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction (47.9% versus 29.8%, P=0.0002). Multivariable logistic regression models showed 5 independent parameters associated with plaque erosion: age 15.0 g/dL, and normal renal function. When all 5 parameters are present in a patient with non–ST-segment elevation-ACS, the probability of plaque erosion increased to 73.1%. Conclusions-—Clinical and laboratory parameters associatedwith plaque erosion are explored in this retrospective registry study. These parametersmay be useful to identify the subset ofACS patients with plaque erosion and guide themto conservativemanagement without invasive procedures. The results of this exploratory analysis need to be confirmed in large scale prospective clinical studiesDr. Jang has received an educational grant from Abbott Vascular and Medicure. Dr. Adriaenssens has received grants and consulting fees from Abbott Vascula

Clearance of pentosidine, an advanced glycation end product, by different modalities of renal replacement therapy

We recently demonstrated that pentosidine, an advanced glycation end product,accumulates markedly as albumin-linked form (P-alb) and in free-form (P-free) in the plasma of patients with end-stage renal failure. The present study was undertaken to examine the clearance of P-alb and P-free by different modalities of renal replacement therapy, that is, hemodialysis (HD), continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), and renal transplantation. HD cleared P-free (9.4 +/- 4.3 nmol/kg/HD) but not P-alb, by diffusion but not by membrane adsorption, whereas CAPD cleared both P-alb (4.03 +/- 2.01 nmol/kg/day) and P-free (2.43 +/- 1.24 nmol/kg/day). Plasma total pentosidine levels were significantly (P < 0.05) lower in CAPD (0.97 +/- 0.41 nmol/ml) than in HD (1.19 +/- 0.41 nmol/ml), as the result of a lower serum albumin level in the former patients. Indeed, P-alb expressed per mg albumin was virtually identical in HD and CAPD. By contrast, P-free was significantly lower in CAPD than in HD. P-alb levels were significantly correlated with plasma P-free levels in both HD and CAPD patients, but not in the CAPD dialysate. Pentosidine transport across the peritoneum occurs mainly by diffusion, both as P-alb and P-free. Interestingly, peritoneal P-alb clearance (0.17 +/- 0.07 ml/min) significantly (P < 0.00001) exceeded albumin clearance (0.11 +/- 0.05 ml/min). P-alb levels being significantly higher (P < 0.0005) in the peritoneal fluid (36.28 +/- 18.55 pmol/mg) than in the serum (27.12 +/- 11.71 pmol/mg), thus raises the possibility of a facilitated diffusion of P-alb or an active transport mechanism for protein-linked pentosidine into the peritoneal cavity. After renal transplantation, plasma P-free fell rapidly, remained barely detectable after one month, and returned to normal at six months. By contrast, P-alb fell more slowly and remained significantly above normal at six months, but returned eventually to normal levels. These findings demonstrate that: (1) both HD and CAPD remove P-free; (2) the peritoneal clearance of P-alb might contribute to the lower level of plasma pentosidine in CAPD than in HD patients; and (3) renal transplantation is the best therapeutic modality to normalize both P-alb and P-free levels

Healed Plaques in Patients With Stable Angina Pectoris

OBJECTIVE: Healed plaques, signs of previous plaque destabilization, are frequently found in the coronary arteries. Healed plaques can now be diagnosed in living patients. We investigated the prevalence, angiographic, and optical coherence tomography features of healed plaques in patients with stable angina pectoris. Approach and Results: Patients with stable angina pectoris who had undergone optical coherence tomography imaging were included. Healed plaques were defined as plaques with one or more signal-rich layers of different optical density. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on layered or nonlayered phenotype at the culprit lesion. Among 163 patients, 87 (53.4%) had layered culprit plaque. Patients with layered culprit plaque had more multivessel disease (62.1% versus 44.7%, P=0.027) and more angiographically complex culprit lesions (64.4% versus 35.5%, P&lt;0.001). Layered culprit plaques had higher prevalence of lipid plaque (83.9% versus 64.5%, P=0.004), macrophage infiltration (58.6% versus 35.5%, P=0.003), calcifications (78.2% versus 63.2%, P=0.035), and thrombus (28.7% versus 14.5%, P=0.029). Lipid index (P=0.001) and percent area stenosis (P=0.015) were greater in the layered group. The number of nonculprit plaques, evaluated using coronary angiograms, tended to be greater in patients with layered culprit plaque (4.2\ub12.5 versus 3.5\ub12.1, P=0.053). Nonculprit plaques in patients with layered culprit lesion had higher prevalence of layered pattern (P=0.002) and lipid phenotype (P=0.005). Lipid index (P=0.013) and percent area stenosis (P=0.002) were also greater in this group. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with stable angina pectoris, healed culprit plaques are common and have more features of vulnerability and advanced atherosclerosis both at culprit and nonculprit lesions

Clinical and Laboratory Predictors for Plaque Erosion in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes

Background Plaque erosion is responsible for 25% to 40% of patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Recent studies suggest that anti-thrombotic therapy without stenting may be an option for this subset of patients. Currently, however, an invasive procedure is required to make a diagnosis of plaque erosion. The aim of this study was to identify clinical or laboratory predictors of plaque erosion in patients with ACS to enable a diagnosis of erosion without additional invasive procedures. Methods and Results Patients with ACS who underwent optical coherence tomography imaging were selected from 11 institutions in 6 countries. The patients were classified into plaque rupture, plaque erosion, or calcified plaque, and predictors were identified using multivariable logistic modeling. Among 1241 patients with ACS, 477 (38.4%) patients were found to have plaque erosion. Plaque erosion was more frequent in non-ST-segment elevation-ACS than in ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (47.9% versus 29.8%, P=0.0002). Multivariable logistic regression models showed 5 independent parameters associated with plaque erosion: age 15.0 g/dL, and normal renal function. When all 5 parameters are present in a patient with non-ST-segment elevation-ACS, the probability of plaque erosion increased to 73.1%. Conclusions Clinical and laboratory parameters associated with plaque erosion are explored in this retrospective registry study. These parameters may be useful to identify the subset of ACS patients with plaque erosion and guide them to conservative management without invasive procedures. The results of this exploratory analysis need to be confirmed in large scale prospective clinical studies. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT03479723.status: publishe

Relative risk of plaque erosion among different age and sex groups in patients with acute coronary syndrome

Postmortem studies reported plaque erosion is frequent in young women. Recent in vivo studies failed to show age and sex differences in the plaque erosion prevalence. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of plaque erosion by age and sex among acute coronary syndromes (ACS) patients. From 1699 ACS patients, 1083 with plaque erosion or rupture were analyzed. Patients were categorized as 5 age groups (≤ 50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, ≥ 81 years). Overall prevalence of plaque erosion was similar between males and females (p = 0.831). Males age ≤ 50 had higher (p = 0.018) and age 71-80 had lower (p = 0.006) prevalence of plaque erosion. Females age 61-70 had higher (p = 0.021) and age 71-80 had lower (p = 0.045) prevalence of plaque erosion. In advanced age groups (≥ 71 years), rupture was the dominant etiology in both sexes. In multivariate analysis of males, age ≤ 50 demonstrated a trend to increase (OR 1.418, 95% CI 0.961-2.093, p = 0.078) the erosion risk. Females age ≤ 70 independently increased (OR 2.138, 95% CI 1.249-3.661, p = 0.006) the risk for erosion. The prevalence of plaque erosion was similar between males and females. Plaque erosion risk was increased in the males age ≤ 50 and in the females age ≤ 70 among ACS patients.status: publishe