Coronary disease & ACSDiagnostic or prognostic study
Intracoronary Structural-Molecular Imaging for Multitargeted Characterization of High-Risk Plaque
- Diagnostic feasibility study
- prospective
- open-label
- single-center
- first-in-human
- Enrolment February–August 2022
Authors' conclusion
This diagnostic feasibility study found that an OCT-FLIm structural-molecular intracoronary imaging is clinically feasible and safe for the comprehensive characterization of human atheromas
Study context
- Population
- Patients with significant coronary artery disease (CAD) requiring coronary revascularization
- Participants
- 40 patients
- Comparison
- OCT-FLIm plaque characterization; Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) vs chronic stable angina (CSA) and rapid progression vs nonprogressive lesions
- ACSn = 20
- CSAn = 20reference
- Outcome
- FLIm-derived molecular readouts of prespecified plaque compositions
Performance
As reported in the abstract
FLIm molecular readouts of plaque compositions
- Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm) characterized macrophages, healed plaques, superficial calcification and fibrosis reproducibly
- Fluorescence lifetime (FL) values of plaque compositions correlated with prior autopsy studies
Secondary outcomes
Inflammation-FL, ACS vs CSA
P < 0.001
| Outcome | P value |
|---|---|
| Healed plaque-FL, rapidly progressive vs nonprogressive lesions | P < 0.001 |
- Healed plaque-FL, rapidly progressive vs nonprogressive lesions: Rapidly progressive mean 5.31 (SD 0.20) nanoseconds
- Healed plaque-FL, rapidly progressive vs nonprogressive lesions: Nonprogressive mean 4.81 (SD 0.30) nanoseconds
Safety
Adverse clinical events
- All patients underwent OCT-FLIm safely without adverse clinical events
Original publication
Intracoronary Structural-Molecular Imaging for Multitargeted Characterization of High-Risk Plaque. JAMA Cardiol. Published 1 July 2025. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2025.0928
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it