Neuroimaging Clinics of North America August 2002 [antikvár]

NEUROIMAGING CLINICS OF NORTH AMERICANeuroimag Clin N Am 12 (2002) ixPrefaceImaging of atherosclerosisZahi A. Fayad, PhD Guest EditorCurrently, there is a flurry of activity and advancement in our understanding of the complex processes that underlie atherosclerosis, as well as in the development of innovative imaging technologies for the detection of this disease in humans. A common theme of this issue of the Neuroimaging Clinics of North America is the recognition that the evaluation of this systemic arterial disease must move beyond simple stmctural analysis of stenotic lesions toward approaches that use new methods to predict plaque rupture. Such approaches will assess specific features that are predictive of plaque stability, including tissue composition and vascular and end-organ functions.This issue includes articles on the basic atherosclerosis formation and embolization in the carotid arteries, aorta, coronary arteries, and peripheral vessels, as well as the need for imaging. It also includes articles on the different available techniques that permit assessment of atherosclerosis in vivo, such as B-mode ultrasound, computed tomography, transesophageal echocardiography, diffusion and perfusion magnetic resonance, and high-resolution multicontrastmagnetic resonance. There is no doubt that the methods discussed in this issue are likely to contribute to the improvement of our clinical understanding and management of patients with atherosclerosis.As Guest Editor, I have been fortunate to have experts from various medical specialties willing to share their knowledge in this issue. I wish to personally thank all the authors for their excellent work. I would also like to extend my thanks to Dr. Burton P. Drayer for the invitation to participate and for his continued support. Finally, I am indebted to Mr. Barton Dudlick from W.B. Saunders for his very valuable help and insight during this process.Zahi A. Fayad, PhD Imaging Science Laboratories Department of Radiology and the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute Mount Sinai School of Medicine One Gustave L. Levy Place New York, NY 10029