Progress of Ultrasound Techniques in the Evaluation of Carotid Vulnerable Plaque Neovascularization

The rupture and detachment of unstable plaques in the carotid artery can cause embolism in the cerebral artery, leading to acute cerebrovascular events. Intraplaque neovascularization (IPN) is a very important contributor to carotid plaque instability, and its evolution plays a key role in determining the outcome of vulnerable plaques. Ultrasound techniques, represented by contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and superb microvascular imaging (SMI), are reported to be non-invasive, rapid, and effective techniques for the semi-quantitative or quantitative evaluation for IPN. Although ultrasound techniques have been widely applied in the detection of carotid plaque stability, it has been limited owing to the lack of unified IPN quantitative standards.

This review summarizes the application and semi-quantitative/quantitative diagnostic standards of ultrasound techniques in evaluating IPN and looks forward to the prospects of the future research. With the development of novel techniques like artificial intelligence, ultrasound will offer appropriate selections for achieving more accuracy diagnosis.

A large number of studies have used CEUS and SMI to detect IPN and perform semi-quantitative grading to predict the occurrence of diseases such as stroke and to accurately assess drug efficacy based on rating changes. These studies have made great progress at this stage, but more accurate and intelligent quantitative imaging methods should become the future development goal.