Clinical and laboratory predictors for plaque erosion in patients with acute coronary syndromes

Background-—Plaque erosion is responsible for 25% to 40% of patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Recent studies suggest that anti-thrombotic therapy without stenting may be an option for this subset of patients. Currently, however, an invasive procedure is required to make a diagnosis of plaque erosion. The aim of this study was to identify clinical or laboratory predictors of plaque erosion in patients with ACS to enable a diagnosis of erosion without additional invasive procedures. Methods and Results-—Patients with ACS who underwent optical coherence tomography imaging were selected from 11 institutions in 6 countries. The patients were classified into plaque rupture, plaque erosion, or calcified plaque, and predictors were identified using multivariable logistic modeling. Among 1241 patients with ACS, 477 (38.4%) patients were found to have plaque erosion. Plaque erosion was more frequent in non–ST-segment elevation-ACS than in ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction (47.9% versus 29.8%, P=0.0002). Multivariable logistic regression models showed 5 independent parameters associated with plaque erosion: age 15.0 g/dL, and normal renal function. When all 5 parameters are present in a patient with non–ST-segment elevation-ACS, the probability of plaque erosion increased to 73.1%. Conclusions-—Clinical and laboratory parameters associatedwith plaque erosion are explored in this retrospective registry study. These parametersmay be useful to identify the subset ofACS patients with plaque erosion and guide themto conservativemanagement without invasive procedures. The results of this exploratory analysis need to be confirmed in large scale prospective clinical studies
Dr. Jang has received an educational grant from Abbott Vascular and Medicure. Dr. Adriaenssens has received grants and consulting fees from Abbott Vascular