Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. Jun 28, 2015; 7(6): 131-133
Published online Jun 28, 2015. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v7.i6.131
Contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging of the vasa vasorum of carotid artery plaque
Ze-Zhou Song, Yan-Ming Zhang
Ze-Zhou Song, Yan-Ming Zhang, Department of Ultrasound, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital, Hangzhou 310014, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Both the authors contributed to this work.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ze-Zhou Song, MS, Department of Ultrasound, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital, #158 Shangtang Road, Hangzhou 310014, Zhejiang Province, China. zezhou_song@126.com
Fax: +86-571-87061007
Received: January 17, 2015
Peer-review started: January 19, 2015
First decision: February 7, 2015
Revised: March 10, 2015
Accepted: April 10, 2015
Article in press: April 14, 2015
Published online: June 28, 2015
Abstract

The vasa vasorum of carotid artery plaque is a novel marker of accurately evaluating the vulnerability of carotid artery plaque, which was associated with symptomatic cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease. The presence of ultrasound contrast agents in carotid artery plaque represents the presence of the vasa vasorum in carotid artery plaque because the ultrasound contrast agents are strict intravascular tracers. Therefore, contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a novel and safe imaging modality for evaluating the vasa vasorum in carotid artery plaque. However, there are some issues that needs to be assessed to embody fully the clinical utility of the vasa vasorum in carotid artery plaque with CEUS.

Keywords: Vasa vasorum, Carotid artery, Plaque, Vulnerability, Contrast-enhanced ultrasound

Core tip: Stroke is a major cause of morbidity and mortality all over the world. At-risk patients is so-called vulnerable patients because they posses a higher likelihood of developing symptomatic stroke compared with those low-risk patients. Vulnerable patients usually have carotid artery vulnerable plaques and vulnerable plaques posses a higher likelihood of rupture to lead to acute stroke. The vasa vasorum of carotid artery plaque has been confirmed as same as vulnerable plaques and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography could detect the vasa vasorum of carotid artery plaque.