Fig. 1.

A representative case of aortic vulnerable plaques with Ao-angioscopy

A 75 year-old-female patient had effort angina pectoris, diabetes mellitus, and peripheral artery disease. She had been using rosuvastatin and insulin. Her low-density lipoprotein level was 109 mg/dL and HbA1c level was 7.0%. She was diagnosed with a chronic total occlusion lesion and intense yellow plaques identified by coronary angioscopy. We then performed aortic angioscopy immediately after percutaneous coronary intervention. We were able to observe several aortic plaques across the aorta.

Aortic angioscopic findings are shown below.

*1. aortic arch: *2. descending thoracic aorta: *3. suprarenal abdominal aorta: *4. infrarenal abdominal aorta: *5. common iliac artery

=(Maximum yellow grade) 3:2:2:3:2

=(Number of intense yellow plaque) 1:0:0:2:0

=(Number of ruptured plaque) 1:0:1:2:0

=(Number of thrombi) 1:0:0:2:2

There were 12 vulnerable plaques in whole aorta.