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Perivascular fat — an unheralded informant of coronary inflammation

A novel image-analysis method using standard CT imaging demonstrates that changes in the CT signal of coronary perivascular adipose tissue are associated with the degree of inflammation in adjacent coronary plaques. This exciting development might become a useful adjuvant clinical tool, although further validation and prospective outcome studies are required.

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Acknowledgements

M.R.D. is supported by the British Heart Foundation (FS/14/78/31020), and is the recipient of the Sir Jules Thorn Award for Biomedical Research 2015. Z.A.F. is supported by NIH grants P01 HL131478, R01 HL071021, R01 HL128056, R01 HL135878, and R01 EB009638.

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Correspondence to Zahi A. Fayad.

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Dweck, M., Fayad, Z. Perivascular fat — an unheralded informant of coronary inflammation. Nat Rev Cardiol 14, 573–574 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2017.127

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