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High Echogenic Thickening of Proximal Coronary Artery Predicts the Far Advanced Coronary Atherosclerosis
Author(s) -
Choi YunSeok,
Youn HoJoong,
Park ChulSoo,
Oh YongSeog,
Chung WookSung,
Kim JaeHyung
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
echocardiography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1540-8175
pISSN - 0742-2822
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8175.2008.00766.x
Subject(s) - medicine , echogenicity , cardiology , intravascular ultrasound , coronary atherosclerosis , stenosis , coronary artery disease , artery , calcification , coronary arteries , radiology , lesion , subclinical infection , ultrasound , pathology
Background: Detection of subclinical, nonobstructive coronary artery disease will require the evaluation of coronary arterial walls and external coronary diameter in order to detect increases in arterial wall thickness and compensatory remodeling before luminal narrowing. We assessed the meaning of high echogenic thickening (HET) on transthoracic coronary echogram of proximal coronary arteries and evaluated whether HET predicts the severity of coronary artery disease on angiogram. Methods: Ninety‐seven patients (M:F = 61:36, mean age = 61 ± 8 years) referred for coronary angiography were included in this study. We detected proximal coronary artery using transthoracic coronary echogram. We defined that HET is more than 1.5 mm in thickness with high echogenicity and persistence. Of these patients, 29 vessels were examined by IVUS (intravascular ultrasound) Results: (1) HET on coronary echogram had a sensitivity of 44.4% and specificity of 95% for identifying calcification on IVUS. (2) HET had a sensitivity of 73.5% and specificity of 85.7% for identifying the significant stenosis of proximal left coronary artery. (3) HET was observed more frequently in three‐vessel diseases and more complex lesion compared to normal and one‐ or two‐vessel diseases (P < 0.05, respectively). Conclusion: HET may be related to the presence of calcification and predicts far advanced coronary atherosclerosis .