Evaluation of coronary adventitial vasa vasorum using 3D optical coherence tomography – Animal and human studies. Issue 1 (March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Aoki, Tatsuo; Rodriguez-Porcel, Martin; Matsuo, Yoshiki; Cassar, Andrew; Kwon, Teak-Geun; Franchi, Federico; Gulati, Rajiv; Kushwaha, Sudhir S.; Lennon, Ryan J.; Lerman, Lilach O.; Ritman, Erik L.; Lerman, Amir
• Is Part Of: Atherosclerosis. Volume 239:Issue 1(2015)
• Page Start: 203
• Page End: 208
• Publication Date: 2015-03
• Subjects: Cardiac allograft vasculopathy -- Microvessel -- Optical coherence tomography -- Microchannel; MC microchannels -- m-CT micro computed tomography -- MCV microchannel volume -- OCT optical coherence tomography -- PV plaque volume -- VV vasa vasorum; Arteriosclerosis -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 616.136
• DOI: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2015.01.016
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9150

Abstract

Abstract: Objectives: This study sought to evaluate adventitial vasa vasorum (VV) in vivo with novel imaging technique of optical coherence tomography (OCT). Methods: To verify OCT methods for quantification of VV, we first studied 2 swine carotid arteries in a model of focal angiogenesis by autologous blood injection, and compared microchannel volume (MCV) by OCT and VV by m-CT, and counts of those. In OCT images, adventitial MC was identified as signal-voiding areas which were located within 1 mm from the lumen-intima border. After manually tracing microchannel areas and the boundaries of lumen-intima and media-adventitial in all slices, we reconstructed 3D images. Moreover, we performed with OCT imaging in 8 recipients referred for evaluation of cardiac allograft vasculopathy at 1 year after heart transplantation. MCV and plaque volume (PV) were assessed with 3D images in each 10-mm-segment. Results: In the animal study, among the 16 corresponding 1-mm-segments, there were significant correlations of count and volume between both the modalities (count r 2 = 0.80, P < 0.01; volume r 2 = 0.50, P < 0.01) and a good agreement with a systemic bias toward underestimation with m-CT. In the human study, there was a significant positive correlation between MCV and PV (segment number = 24, r 2 = 0.63, P < 0.01). Conclusion: Our results suggest that evaluation of MCV with 3D OCT imaging might be a novel method to estimate the amount of adventitial VV in vivo, and further has the potential to provide a pathophysiological insight into a role of the VV in allograft vasculopathy. Highlights: We studied 2 swine to verify OCT methods for quantification of vasa vasorum. We compared microchannel (MC) volume by OCT and vasa vasorum (VV) volume by micro-CT. Coronary reconstructed 3D OCT images from heart transplant recipients were analyzed. In the animal study, there were significant correlations between both the modalities. Human study showed a significant correlation between MC volume and plaque volume.