Magnetic resonance imaging of high-risk plaque

Abstract

What is clear from reviewing the pathogenetic mechanisms behind atherosclerosis and the acute coronary syndromes is that we are extremely limited in our ability to accurately identify patients at risk for acute coronary events.1 The current armamentarium of clinically available diagnostic investigations, both noninvasive and invasive, can only provide us with data related to the stenotic severity of a coronary artery. The noninvasive testing can determine stress-induced (exercise or pharmacologic) ischemic changes in electrical repolarization, wall motion, and myocardial radioactive tracer uptake. The invasive test of coronary angiography, although the current “gold standard” for the detection of coronary atherosclerotic disease, provides no data about the composition of an atherosclerotic lesion.2,3.