In a recent study published in The Lancet , researchers investigate whether coronary arterial inflammation contributes to major adverse cardiac events (MACE) or cardiovascular deaths among individuals with or without coronary artery disease (CAD). Study: Inflammatory risk and cardiovascular events in patients without obstructive coronary artery disease: the ORFAN multicentre, longitudinal cohort study . Image Credit: Axel_Kock / Shutterstock.
com Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is often the first imaging test used for patients who present with stable chest pain to determine the need for coronary revascularization due to obstructive CAD. Despite its widespread use, many symptomatic patients who undergo CCTA do not have any detectable build-up of plaque within their coronary arteries, are not diagnosed with CAD, and are subsequently discharged. Even in the absence of CAD, vascular inflammation can lead to acute coronary syndromes.
Thus, there remains an urgent need to identify and treat patients with inflamed coronary arteries. To this end, the researchers of the current study previously developed a technology that allows for the assessment of coronary inflammation by measuring changes in perivascular adipose tissue from CCTA images. The fat attenuation index (FAI) and FAI Score are then used to quantify these changes to estimate the extent of inflammation present within the patient’s coronary arteries.
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