症例報告(第28回徳島医学会賞受賞論文)脂質低下療法による頸動脈プラーク安定化の評価 : 超音波integrated backscatterを用いたカラーマッピングシステムの開発と臨床応用

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Background : The carotid plaque vulnerability is related to myocardial and cerebral infarction.We intended to develop an imaging system which enables to visualize tissue characteristics in thecarotid plaques based on ultrasound integrated backscatter（IB）. And to test its clinical efficacy,effect of the statin therapy on the plaques was evaluated with our software. Methods and Results :Carotid ultrasound examination was performed and ultrasonographic RAW data of the plaqueswere obtained from８patients undergoing carotid artery endarterectomy. Tissue characteristicsin the plaques of resected examples were compared with preoperative ultrasonic images and thetissue IB values corresponding to the specimens were determined for developing our imaging system.Using this system, Color-coded maps of plaques in the three patients were constructed beforeand after lipid lowing therapy. We could demonstrate that lipid fraction in each plaque decreasedand fibrous or calcification fraction increased in the follow-up study. Conclusions : Changes inhistology of carotid plaques by statin could visualized with our imaging system. This techniquemay become a useful tool for the management of atherosclerosis.
2012-08-25