Table 4. Correlation between plaque characteristics and APN, CysC, or CysC–APN complex.

	APN		CysC		CysC–APN complex
	r	p	r	p	r	p
Plaque burden (%)	−0.317	0.039	−0.064	0.682	−0.020	0.899
Fibrotic components (%)	0.123	0.431	−0.002	0.990	−0.384	0.011
Lipidic components (%)	−0.114	0.467	0.140	0.370	0.171	0.273
Necrotic components (%)	−0.171	0.273	−0.064	0.682	0.406	0.007
Calcified components (%)	0.107	0.497	0.058	0.712	0.034	0.830
Lipidic plus Necrotic components (%)	−0.179	0.251	−0.002	0.990	0.417	0.005

The relationships of the parameters were investigated by Spearman's correlation coefficient.