Comprehensive Assessment of Interconnection Between Brain Emotional Activity and Coronary Plaque Instability

Biological Interconnection Between Stress-associated Neurobiological Activity and Atherosclerotic Plaque Instability: A Prospective Cohort Study With OCT-FLIM Dual-modal Intravascular Imaging and Serial 18F-FDG-PET/CT Assessment

Emotional stress is associated with future cardiovascular events. However, the biological interconnection between brain emotional neural activity and acute plaque instability is not fully understood. Optical coherence tomography-Fluorescence Lifetime (OCT-FLIM) dual modal intravascular imaging is a novel technique that enables comprehensive assessment of structural and biochemical characteristics of coronary atheroma and estimates the level of plaque instability. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG-PET/CT) enables simultaneous estimation of multi-system activities including emotional stress, arterial inflammation, and hematopoiesis. The present study aims to prospectively investigate mechanistic linkage between coronary plaque instability, stress-associated neurobiological activity, and macrophage hematopoiesis using OCT-FLIM and 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging assessment.

Thirty two patients with multivessel coronary artery disease (including both stable angina and acute coronary syndrome), who have at least one severe obstructive lesion (>70% diameter stenosis) that is considered suitable for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), will be included in the study.

Structural/biochemical characteristics of coronary culprit plaque (with or without mild to moderate stenotic non-culprit plaque) will be assessed comprehensively using OCT-FLIM dual modal intravascular imaging.

After coronary revascularization with PCI, subjects will undergo serial 18F-FDG-PET/CT molecular imaging at baseline admission and 6-month follow-up to measure PET signal activities at target tissues including amygdala, carotid artery, aorta, bone marrow, and spleen.

Correlation between OCT-FLIM parameters and baseline PET signals will be assessed to provide insight into the mechanistic linkage between multi-system metabolic activities and coronary plaque instability. Serial PET/CT imaging after 6 month will enable estimation of natural course of multi-system PET signal activities according to different levels of coronary plaque instability.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age: greater than 20, less than 75
• Patients with severe coronary atherosclerosis (diameter stenosis >70%) requiring coronary revascularization
• Reference vessel diameter: between 2.5 and 4.0 mm
• Obtained informed consent from voluntary participants before study enrollment

Exclusion Criteria:

• Complex coronary lesion (ostial lesion, unprotected left main lesion, chronic total occlusion, grafted vessels, etc)
• Reference vessel diameter: less than 2.5 mm, greater than 4.0 mm
• Coronary lesion with heavy calcification
• Hemodynamic instability during coronary intervention
• Contraindication to antithrombotic therapy
• Chronic renal insufficiency (Serum creatinine >2.0mg/dL)
• Severe liver dysfunction (aspartate transaminase or alanine transferase > 5 times of upper normal limit)
• Pregnancy or potential pregnancy
• Life expectancy less than 1 year
• Patient refused to sign the informed consent at enrollment