Non-invasive imaging techniques and assessment of carotid vasa vasorum neovascularization: promises and pitfalls

Carotid adventitia vasa vasorum neovascularization (VVn) is associated with the initial stages of arteriosclerosis and with the formation of unstable plaque. However, techniques to accurately quantify that neovascularization in a standard, fast, non-invasive, and efficient way are still lacking. The...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Pereira, Tania, Betriu i Bars, M. Àngels, Alves, Rui
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Data de publicação:2018
País:España
Recursos:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositório:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/65168
Acesso em linha:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcm.2018.06.007
http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/65168
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Carotid imaging techniques
Vasa vasorum neovascularization
Atherosclerotic process
Automatic methods
Descrição
Resumo:Carotid adventitia vasa vasorum neovascularization (VVn) is associated with the initial stages of arteriosclerosis and with the formation of unstable plaque. However, techniques to accurately quantify that neovascularization in a standard, fast, non-invasive, and efficient way are still lacking. The development of such techniques holds the promise of enabling wide, inexpensive, and safe screening programs that could stratify patients and help in personalized preventive cardiovascular medicine. In this paper, we review the recent scientific literature pertaining to imaging techniques that could set the stage for the development of standard methods for quantitative assessment of atherosclerotic plaque and carotid VVn. We present and discuss the alternative imaging techniques being used in clinical practice and we review the computational developments that are contributing to speed up image analysis and interpretation. We conclude that one of the greatest upcoming challenges will be the use of machine learning techniques to develop automated methods that assist in the interpretation of images to stratify patients according to their risk.