Fig 1.
Morphological analysis of calcification using optical coherence tomography.
The angle marked by the yellow lines represents the calcium arc. The white line indicates the thickness of calcification, the black one its depth. The blue dotted line shows the calcified area.
Fig 2.
OCT-defined microcalcification.
An OCT-defined microcalcification with a calcium arc<22.5° is marked with a white arrow. Scale bar in the right lower corner.
Fig 3.
OCT image of a co-localization between macrophages and calcification.
Macrophage accumulation is highlighted with two white arrows, macrocalcification is contoured with a white dotted line. In the magnified section, the distance of 90μm (below the defined threshold for co-localization of 100μm) between macrophages and calcification is shown.
Table 1.
Clinical parameters of patients with and without a co-localization between macrophages and calcification in the coronary target segment.
Abbreviations: BP = blood pressure; BMI = body mass index; COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; CAD = coronary artery disease; PCI = percutaneous coronary intervention; CABG = coronary artery bypass graft; ASS = aspirin; ACEi/ARB = angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers.
Table 2.
Morphological analysis using OCT in target segments with and without co-localization between macrophages and calcification.
Abbreviations: RD = reference diameter, MLD = minimal luminal diameter, RA = reference area, MLA = minimal luminal area, FCT = fibrous cap thickness.
Table 3.
Morphological analysis of calcification in coronary segments with and without a co-localization between macrophages and calcification.
Table 4.
Univariate analysis on predictors of a co-localization between macrophages and calcification.
Table 5.
Multivariate analysis on predictors of a co-localization between macrophages and calcification.