The European Collaborative Project on Inflammation and Vascular Wall Remodeling in Atherosclerosis - Intravascular Ultrasound (ATHEROREMO-IVUS) study.

Aims: The European Collaborative Project on Inflammation and Vascular Wall Remodeling in Atherosclerosis - Intravascular Ultrasound (ATHEROREMO-IVUS) study was designed as an exploratory clinical study in order to investigate the associations between genetic variation, coronary atherosclerosis phenotypes, and plaque vulnerability as determined by IVUS.

Methods And Results: The ATHEROREMO-IVUS study was a prospective, observational study of 581 patients with stable angina pectoris or acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who were referred for coronary angiography to the Thoraxcenter, Rotterdam, enriched with 265 IBIS-2 participants (total population, n=846). Prior to catheterisation, blood samples were drawn for genetic analyses.

Life-years gained by smoking cessation after percutaneous coronary intervention.

Previous studies have shown that smoking cessation after a cardiac event reduces the risk of subsequent mortality in patients. The aim of this study was to describe the effect of smoking cessation in terms of prolonged life-years gained. The study sample comprised 856 patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; balloon angioplasty) during 1980 to 1985.

Comprehensive assessment of coronary artery stenoses: computed tomography coronary angiography versus conventional coronary angiography and correlation with fractional flow reserve in patients with stable angina.

Objectives: We sought to determine the diagnostic accuracy of noninvasive visual (computed tomography coronary angiography [CTCA]) and quantitative computed tomography coronary angiography (QCT) to predict the hemodynamic significance of a coronary stenosis, using intracoronary fractional flow reserve (FFR) as the reference standard.

Background: It has been demonstrated that CTCA provides excellent diagnostic sensitivity for identifying coronary stenoses, but may lack accurate delineation of the hemodynamic significance.

Methods: We investigated 79 patients with stable angina pectoris who underwent both 64-slice or dual-source CTCA and FFR measurement of discrete coronary stenoses.

Assessment of culprit and remote coronary narrowings using optical coherence tomography with long-term outcomes.

Much currently known information about vulnerable plaque stems from postmortem studies that identified several characteristics making them prone to rupture, including the presence of a thin fibrous cap and a large lipid core. This study used optical coherence tomography (OCT) to assess culprit and remote coronary narrowings and investigate whether intracoronary OCT in living patients was able to visualize morphologic features associated with vulnerable plaque in postmortem studies. Twenty-three patients successfully underwent OCT before percutaneous coronary intervention.