Study on the supersensitive microflow imaging technique in evaluating the carotid atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability and its correlation with cerebral infarction

Objective To investigate the formation of neovascularization (IPN) in carotid plaque by AngioPLUS (AP) technology, analyze the correlation with cerebral infarction, and evaluate the application value of AP technology in identifying vulnerable plaques.

Methods One hundred and fifty-seven patients with carotid atherosclerosis complicated with plaque formation (including 83 cases of acute cerebral infarction and 74 cases of non-acute cerebral infarction) were selected. The general situation of patients were investigated, the carotid artery plaque was detected by routine ultrasound and AP technique. The differences in the plaque size, echo and intraplaque neovascularization (IPN) between two groups were compared.

Results Among the 157 patients with carotid plaque formation, 245 plaques were collected, which included133 cases in the acute cerebral infarction group and 112 cases in the non-acute cerebral infarction group. The plaque length, IMVF grade and IPN number in the acute cerebral infarction group were higher than those in non-acute cerebral infarction group (P ＜ 0.05 to P ＜ 0.01), and the difference of the IPN spectrum composition between two groups was statistically significant (P ＜ 0.01). The results of logistic regression analysis showed that the IMVF grade (OR = 1.415, 95%CI: 1.017–1.968, P ＜ 0.05) and IPN number (OR = 2.863, 95%CI: 1.310–6.254, P ＜ 0.01) were significantly correlated with the occurrence of acute cerebral infarction, and the higher the IMVF grade and the more IPN number, the more vulnerable plaque.

Conclusions The formation of carotid IPN, namely the vulnerability of plaque, may be related to the occurrence of cerebral infarction. AP technology is also expected to be an effective detection means to identify vulnerable plaque.