Identification of vulnerable carotid plaque with histologically validated CT-derived plaque maps.

Objectives: Ruptured carotid plaque causes stroke, but differentiating rupture-prone necrotic core from fibrous tissue with CT is limited by overlap of X-ray attenuation. We investigated the ability of CT-derived plaque maps created from ratios of plaque/contrast attenuation to identify histologically proven vulnerable plaques.

Methods: Seventy patients underwent carotid CT angiography and carotid endarterectomy.