A prospective cardiometabolism ApPRoach of mechanisms of coronary plaque rupture to apprehend patients at risk of recurrent events — The APPROACH registry

Background Despite improvement in management of coronary artery disease (CAD), recurrent coronary events remain frequent. The aim of this study is to assess predictive factors of plaque rupture, leading to an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) by combining metabolic evaluation and coronary plaque imaging. Methods This study involved two cohorts of patients, one concerning stable CAD and one ACS patients. In both groups of patients, plaque imaging was performed with standard coronary angiogram and optimal coherence tomography (OCT) in the 3 main coronary vessels defined by diameter superior to 2.5 mm. Recurrent major adverse cardiac events were collected during follow-up. Comparison of stable and unstable CAD patients will be performed to try to characterize criteria of plaque vulnerability. Results The preliminary results regarding the ACS cohort are presented in this abstract. We included 48 patients with mean age of 60.5 years and 87.3% of men. A three-vessel atherosclerotic disease was found in 42% of patients. A total of 142 non-culprit coronary lesions were analysed by OCT for a mean run of 60.4 mm by artery and total of 5854 mm. B2/C complex lesions (AHA/ACC classification) were represented in 28.2% of patients. OCT analysis allowed to define coronary lesions with mean distance from ostium of 22.6 mm, mean stenosis length of 11.9 mm and mean minimum lumen area (MLA) of 3.95 mm 2 with 66.1% of patients with MLA  2 . Lesions were distributed in 60% of fibro-fatty plaques, 34% of fibro-calcified plaques and 5% of neo-angiogenesis. Systematic plaque characterization on non-culprit lesions found 7 vulnerable thin-cap fibroatheroma plaques and 3 asymptomatic plaque ruptures. Conclusion OCT analysis of non-culprit coronary lesions is feasible and allows to highlight vulnerable lesions such as asymptomatic plaque ruptures. Analysis of stable cohort, biomarkers and follow-up of patients are necessary to define predictive factors of plaque rupture.