Charting the Unseen: How Non-Invasive Imaging Could Redefine Cardiovascular Prevention

Figures

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  Figure 1. How imaging redefines cardiovascular prevention.

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  Figure 2. Supra-aortic trunks ultrasound: (a) short axis view of internal carotid artery stenosis with calcific plaque; (b) pulsed wave Doppler spectrum of an internal carotid artery with not hemodynamically relevant stenosis; (c) long axis view of a calcific plaque of internal carotid artery; (d) normal pulsed wave Doppler spectrum of a vertebral artery.

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  Figure 3. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity measurement: (a) normal value of pulse wave velocity in a young man without cardiovascular risk factors; (b) increased pulse wave velocity in a 78-year-old male smoker with hypertension and type 2 diabetes.

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  Figure 4. A 65-year-old male smoker with hypertension and dyslipidemia underwent coronary artery calcium (CAC) score calculation for exertional angina. CAC score value is increased in the absence of critic lesions. CAC—coronary artery calcium; CCTA—coronary computed tomography angiography; Cx—circumflex artery; LAD—left anterior descending artery; LM—left main.

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  Figure 5. Coronary computed tomography angiography: A 75-year-old female patient with hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia underwent CCTA as a screening procedure before TAVI intervention. The CCTA shows widespread atherosclerotic disease in all three vessels with extensive non-critical calcified lesions. Abbreviations: CCTA—coronary computed tomography angiography; Cx—circumflex artery; LAD—left anterior descending artery; RCA—right coronary artery; TAVI—transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

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  Figure 6. Photon-counting detector CT angiography (PCD-CTA) of the heart showing coronary stent implantation in the proximal left anterior descending artery (LAD) (yellow arrow in a–c). Three-dimensional cinematic rendering of the heart, showing the stent in the LAD (a), three-dimensional rendering of the ascending aorta and left coronary artery and the stent in proximal LAD (b), curved multiplanar reformation showing the absence of in-stent stenosis (c).

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  Figure 7. Quantification of epicardial fat by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in a 55-year-old obese, smoking, dyslipidemic male patient with poor echocardiographic acoustic window and symptomatic for exertional angina.