Hiroyuki Ito, Tetsuzo Wakatsuki, Koji Yamaguchi, Daiju Fukuda, Yutaka Kawabata, Tomomi Matsuura, Kenya Kusunose, Takayuki Ise, Takeshi Tobiume, Shusuke Yagi, Hirotsugu Yamada, Takeshi Soeki, Yoshihiro Tsuruo, Masataka Sata
BACKGROUND: The coronary adventitia has recently attracted attention as a source of inflammation because it harbors nutrient blood vessels, termed the vasa vasorum (VV). This study assessed the link between local inflammation in adjacent epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) and coronary arterial atherosclerosis in fresh cadavers.Methods and Results:Lesion characteristics in the left anterior descending coronary artery of 10 fresh cadaveric hearts were evaluated using integrated backscatter intravascular ultrasound (IB-IVUS), and the density of the VV and levels of inflammatory molecules from the adjacent EAT were measured for each of the assessed lesions...
April 10, 2020: Circulation Journal: Official Journal of the Japanese Circulation Society