Form to function: current and future roles for atherosclerosis imaging in drug development.

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Atherosclerosis Research
• Drug Development Imaging

Background:

• Atherosclerosis drug development needs advanced imaging markers.
• Current methods offer limited insight into plaque biology modifications.
• New therapies require techniques beyond standard morphology and quantification.

Purpose of the Study:

• Compare main imaging modalities for atherosclerosis in clinical trials.
• Assess the predictive power of imaging techniques for clinical outcomes.
• Evaluate emerging molecular and cellular imaging for functional plaque assessment.

Main Methods:

• Review of clinical trial imaging modalities for atherosclerosis.
• Analysis of imaging data for predicting patient outcomes.
• Exploration of molecular and cellular imaging principles.

Main Results:

• Conventional imaging provides morphological and quantitative data.
• These methods may be insufficient for novel plaque-modifying therapies.
• Emerging techniques show potential for functional plaque assessment.

Conclusions:

• Robust imaging markers are crucial for atherosclerosis drug development.
• Molecular and cellular imaging can quantify biological changes in plaques.
• Advanced imaging may improve assessment of new atherosclerosis therapies.