Figure 3.

Representative examples of plaque burdens and composite plaque scores. For the CONFIRM score both patients were assumed to be 65-year-old smoking male patients with 230 mg/dL total cholesterol, 47 mg/dL HDL, 142 mmHg systolic blood pressure using hypertension medication. For the SYNTAX score calculations, the LAD-LCX bifurcation was assumed to be ≥70˚ and all plaques were shorter than 20 mm. The example shows, that patients with very different degree of disease can have very similar plaque burden scores. Composite plaque burden scores on the other hand seem to better differentiate between the severity of coronary artery disease. D, diagonal; IM, intermediate branch; LAD, left anterior descending; LCX, left circumflex; PDA, posterior descending artery; PLB, posterolateral branch; OM, obtuse marginal; RCA, right coronary artery; prefixes: d, distal; m, mid; p, proximal.