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Abstract #1233

Detection of Coronary Artery Wall Inflammation in a Porcine Model Using Non-Contrast Enhanced MRI

Steen Fjord Pedersen1, William P. Paaske2, Troels Thiem3, Samuel A Thryse, Erling Falk3, Steffen Ringgaard, Won Yong Kim4

1Dept. of Cardiology, and MR-center, Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby, Aarhus, Denmark; 2Dept. of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery T, Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby; 3Dept. of Cardiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby; 4dept. of Cardiology, and MR-center, Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby


Inflammation seems to play a key role in destabilization of atherosclerotic plaques. Detection of Inflammatory activity within atherosclerotic plaques therefore has the potential to distinguish between vulnerable and stable plaques. Using a balloon injured porcine coronary artery, we examined whether edema as a sign of inflammation could be detected in the vessel wall by MRI using a T2-STIR (known to detect edema). After injury, the T2-STIR images showed a significant increase in vessel wall enhancement of 143% (CI95 = [39.6 - 142.5]; and areas with signal enhancement correlated well to inflammation and edema confirmed by histopathology.