Characterization of Atherosclerotic Plaques in Human Coronary Arteries With 16-Slice Multidetector Row Computed Tomography by Analysis of Attenuation Profiles

Coronary atherosclerotic plaques can be reliably identified and classified as either calcified or noncalcified by 16-slice MDCT in postmortem studies. Further differentiation of noncalcified plaques in either lipid-rich or fibrous is not reliably feasible because of substantial overlap of the attenuation.