Table 1.
Patient and lesion characteristics.
Fig 1.
The comparison of the medial thicknesses between main and side branches.
The median thickness of the media in the main branches was significantly higher than in the side branches (0.214 mm [0.157–0.281mm] vs 0.159 mm [0.133–0.204 mm], respectively, p<0.001).
Fig 2.
The comparison of the medial thicknesses between proximal, mid, and distal segments of LAD, LCX, and RCA.
A. The medial thickness of the main branch of LAD became lower from proximal to distal segments (p = 0.010). B. The medial thickness of the main branch of LCX became lower from proximal to distal segments (p = 0.006). C. The medial thickness of the main branch of RCA did not significantly become lower from the proximal to distal segments (p = 0.170). LAD, left anterior descending artery; PLAD, proximal LAD; MLAD, mid LAD; DLAD, distal LAD. LCX, left circumflex artery; PLC, proximal LCX; MLC, mid LCX; DLC, distal LCX. RCA, right coronary artery; PRC, proximal RCA; MRC, mid RCA; DRC, distal RCA.
Table 2.
Measurements of the vessel diameter and the medial thickness.
Fig 3.
The relationship between the medial thicknesses and the vessel diameter.
The thickness of the media directly correlated with the vessel diameter (r = 0.365, p<0.001).
Fig 4.
The relationship between the medial thicknesses and the luminal narrowing.
The thickness of the media inversely correlated with the luminal narrowing (r = -0.277, p<0.001).
Fig 5.
Representative images of sections with different degrees of luminal narrowing.
A, B. Representative images of the sections in the left circumflex artery in a 63-year-old male. The vessel diameters are almost similar between A (3.31mm) and B (3.39 mm). However, the luminal narrowing and medial thickness are measured as (A) 60.0% and 0.217 mm and (B) 19.0%, and 0.324 mm, respectively.