Coronary atherosclerosis with vulnerable plaque and complicated lesions in transplant recipients: new insight into cardiac allograft vasculopathy by optical coherence tomography

摘要

AimsCardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a major limitation to long-term survival following cardiac transplantation. Conventional imaging modalities such as angiography and intravascular ultrasound fail to characterize CAV plaque morphology. Our aim was to characterize CAV in vivo using the high spatial resolution of intracoronary optical coherence tomography (OCT).