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Computed tomography angiography (CTA) can be used to detect obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), but imaging vascular inflammation that can be associated with plaque rupture is challenging. Using existing databases of almost 4000 patients in Germany and the U.S. (median ages, 62 in the German cohort and 53 in the U.S. cohort) who underwent CTA, researchers have developed a new measure — the perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI), which identifies inflammatory changes in perivascular fat.
In both cohorts, high perivascular FAI around the right or left anterior coronary artery was associated with both all-cause and cardiac-related mortality. An FAI higher than −70 Hounsfield units (a measure of radiodensity) was associated with hazard …