Vulnerable plaque imaging

The concept of vulnerable plaque is well established, owing to increasing evidence from clinical and basic research. With this has come a paradigm shift from focusing on the hemodynamic effect of plaque to its structure and composition. Increasingly, it is evident that methods must be developed to detect and characterize vulnerable plaque. Although MR imaging, CT, and ultrasound provide data regarding the vulnerability of a single lesion, future studies may rely more heavily on nuclear medicine techniques that offer a functional assessment of the entire cardiovascular system.