Comparison of Coronary Plaque Components between Non-Culprit Lesions in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome and Target Lesions in Patients with Stable Angina: Virtual Histology-Intravascular Ultrasound Analysis

The differences in plaque characteristics between non-culprit lesions (NCL) in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients (ACS-NCL) and target lesions (TL) in stable angina (SA) patients (SA-TL) are not well understood. We used a virtual histology-intravascular ultrasound (VH-IVUS) to compare the plaque components between ACS-NCL and SA-TL. We compared VH-IVUS findings between 290 ACS-NCL and 276 SA-TL. VH-IVUS classified the color-coded tissue into four major components: green (fibrotic); yellow-green (fibro-fatty); white {dense calcium (DC)}; and red {necrotic core (NC)}. Thin-cap fibroatheroma (TCFA) was defined as a NC ≥10% of the plaque area in at least 3 consecutive frames without overlying fibrous tissue in the presence of ≥40% plaque burden. Although the plaque burden was significantly smaller (52±13% vs. 54±14%, p=0.044), ACS-NCL had a greater %NC area (17.9±11.6% vs. 14.3±8.7%, p