TY - JOUR T1 - Vascular Wall Imaging of Vulnerable Atherosclerotic Carotid Plaques: Current State of the Art and Potential Future of Endovascular Optical Coherence Tomography JF - American Journal of Neuroradiology JO - Am. J. Neuroradiol. SP - 1642 LP - 1650 DO - 10.3174/ajnr.A2753 VL - 33 IS - 9 AU - B.A. Standish AU - J. Spears AU - T.R. Marotta AU - W. Montanera AU - V.X.D. Yang Y1 - 2012/10/01 UR - http://www.ajnr.org/content/33/9/1642.abstract N2 - SUMMARY: As stroke is one of the leading causes of death and long-term morbidity worldwide, the research community has studied cardiac embolic sources, as well as vessel wall pathologies. For the latter, attention has been focused on defining morphologic tissue features associated with catastrophic events stemming from the carotid artery. Multiple noninvasive imaging modalities are currently being used to image and classify carotid atherosclerotic plaques, such as MR imaging, CT, and sonography, in an effort to provide clinically relevant predictive metrics for use in patient risk stratification and to define appropriate treatment options. This article compares and contrasts these existing clinical imaging modalities along with discussion of a new endovascular technique originally developed for cardiology, OCT, with which 3D comprehensive high-resolution images of the arterial wall can be acquired. AHAAmerican Heart AssociationCEcontrast-enhancedCIconfidence intervalHRhazard ratioMDCTAmultidetector row CT angiographyMRDTIMR direct thrombus imagingOCToptical coherence tomographyTOFtime-of-flight ER -