Risk Assessment of Carotid Plaques Using 3D Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound

Carotid Atherosclerosis Clinical Trial

Official title:

Risk Assessment of Carotid Plaques Based on Pressure Estimation Using 3D Contrast-enhanced Ultrasound

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Active, not recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04643431
• Other study ID #: IRB #20D.699
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Phase: Phase 4
• Start date: December 1, 2020
• Est. completion date: May 1, 2024

Study information

• Verified date: March 2024
• Source: Thomas Jefferson University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This is an open-label, non-randomized study conducted at Thomas Jefferson University comparing pressure-gradient estimates (obtained between a carotid plaque and the carotid artery) to imaging and histology markers of plaque vulnerability. There is an inverse relationship between the subharmonic signal magnitude from contrast-enhanced ultrasound microbubbles and ambient pressure. This pressure estimation technique (referred as SHAPE) will be used to estimate the pressure gradient across the carotid plaque cap noninvasively in vivo.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Enrollment: 20
• Est. completion date: May 1, 2024
• Est. primary completion date: April 5, 2023
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients >18 years old and willing and able to participate. Patients with atherosclerosis scheduled for carotid endarterectomy

Exclusion Criteria:

• • Pregnancy or breast-feeding at the time of the scan
• Patients with known hypersensitivity or allergy to any component (including perflutren) of Definity (Lantheus Medical Imaging, Billerica, MA).
• Patients who are medically unstable, patients who are seriously or terminally

ill, and patients whose clinical course is unpredictable. For example:

• Patients on life support or in a critical care unit.
• Patients with unstable occlusive disease (e.g., crescendo angina).
• Patients with clinically unstable cardiac arrhythmias, such as recurrent ventricular tachycardia.
• Patients with uncontrolled congestive heart failure (NYHA Class IV).
• Patients with recent cerebral hemorrhage.
• Patients who have undergone surgery within 24 hours prior to the study sonographic examination.
• Patients with unstable cardiopulmonary conditions (acute myocardial infarction, acute coronary artery syndromes, worsening or unstable congestive heart failure, or serious ventricular arrhythmias) or respiratory distress syndrome.
• Patients with uncontrollable emphysema, pulmonary vasculitis, pulmonary hypertension or a history of pulmonary emboli.
• Patients who have received any contrast medium (X-ray, MRI, CT or ultrasound) in the 24 hours prior to the research ultrasound exam

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Atherosclerosis
• Carotid Artery Diseases
• Carotid Atherosclerosis

Intervention

Diagnostic Test:
• Perflutren
The ultrasound contrast agent is used to improve the quality of ultrasound imaging and is infused over 5-10 minutes. The contrast agent consists of the gas-filled microbubbles smaller than the capillary size which circulate in the vascular system. The contrast agent is cleared from the body naturally within 30 minutes.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Thomas jefferson University	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Thomas Jefferson University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Correlation between the pressure gradient and surrogate (imaging and histological) predictors	The estimates of pressure-gradient across the plaque cap from 3D SHAPE technique will be compared with the surrogate imaging and histological predictors using Pearson's correlation coefficient. The correlations between the surrogate predictors will be also calculated using Pearson's correlation coefficient. We expect the pressure-gradient estimates from SHAPE technique is moderately correlated (above 0.5) with the surrogate predictors.	pre-endarterectomy