Novel Approach for In Vivo Detection of Vulnerable Coronary Plaques Using Molecular 3-T CMR Imaging With an Albumin-Binding Probe.

Objectives: This study sought to investigate the potential of the noninvasive albumin-binding probe gadofosveset-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance (GE-CMR) for detection of coronary plaques that can cause acute coronary syndromes (ACS).

Background: ACS are frequently caused by rupture or erosion of coronary plaques that initially do not cause hemodynamically significant stenosis and are therefore not detected by invasive x-ray coronary angiography (XCA).

Methods: A total of 25 patients with ACS or symptoms of stable coronary artery disease underwent GE-CMR, clinically indicated XCA, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) within 24 h.