Table 2.
Rating system used by the pathologist. In general, the ratings were done in a qualitative fashion, i.e. the ratings of “High” and “Low”, or “Large” and “Small”, were subjectively determined by the pathologist rather than being determined by a quantitative measurement. Ratings for collagen were made with regards to the “average” atherosclerotic plaque, e.g. a collagen rating of 2 indicates a mild decrease in the collagen levels relative to an average plaque as judged by the experience of the pathologist. Black vertical bars indicate where each rating system was dichotomized to perform ROC analysis (see ‘Statistical Analysis’). Ordinal values that are used for statistical analysis are given at the bottom of the table.
| Rating Category | Pathologist’s Rating Levels | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plaque Detection | Plaque Not Present |
Type I | Type II | Type III | Type IV | Type V | Type VI |
| Collagen | Severe Decrease (>50%) | Mild Decrease (<50%) | No Change | Mild Increase (<50%) | Severe Increase (>50%) | - | - |
| IEL | Intact | Somewhat Disrupted | Heavily Disrupted | - | - | - | - |
| Calcium | None | Low | High | - | - | - | - |
| Lipid Pool | None | Small | Large | - | - | - | - |
| Fibrous Cap | |||||||
| Ordinal Value | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |