Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Recent years, antiatherosclerotic clinical studies have been conducted, and statins effect has been evaluated by intravascular unltrasound (IVUS). Very little is known about changed in coronary atherosclerotic plaque.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of medium dosage fluvastatin on coronary atherosclerotic plaque and its composition by gray-scale IVUS and virtual histology-IVUS analysis.
METHODS: A total of 22 patients who had been preliminarily clinically diagnosed as coronary heart disease were performed coronary angiography. These selected patients should have at least one major coronary branch whose stenosis extent was 20%-50% by coronary angiography examination with eye measurement. The gray scale IVUS and virtual histology IVUS after selecting the stenosis arteria coronary as target vessel were recorded and the target blood vessel was examined by IVUS. All selected patients were treated with 80 mg fluvastatin for 12 months after the examination. The low density lipoprotein cholesterol and total cholesterol levels of patients before and after the treatment were compared. Meanwhile the plaque volume and composition variation using IVUS were also analyzed.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: After 12 months of 80 mg fluvastatin, the proportion of dense calcium was significantly increased, and the proportion of necrotic core was decreased, which stabilized plaque. However, the volume of plaque was increased but lumens decreased, not reversing plaque progression.