Central Illustration.

Carpet map characterization of FC thickness in progressing vs regressing segment of a single representative patient. The top panel illustrates the extraction of cap thicknesses from our automated FC assessment tool. The middle panel demonstrates color-coded gradations of FCT displayed longitudinally (y-axis) and circumferentially (x-axis) on an unwrapped vessel wall. The shadowed areas represent nonmeasurable regions caused by guidewire shadow, residual blood, and exclusion regions without lipid pool. The bottom panel highlights the clustering of these cap thicknesses between groups, with the vertical dot line indicating the average FCT for each group. FC, fibrous cap; FCT, fibrous cap thickness.