Background: Results of autopsy studies have suggested that there are sex differences in morphology of coronary-artery plaques, but these differences have yet to be adequately evaluated in vivo.
Design and methods: We performed preintervention intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) measurements on coronary plaques in a consecutive series of 76 men and 30 women with unstable angina pectoris. Both the target lesion and an adjacent reference site were evaluated. Arterial, plaque, and luminal areas were measured by planimetry. Plaques were classified as either calcified or uncalcified, and relative density of plaque was quantitatively assessed by videodensitometry, using a linear gray scale normalized with respect to density of adventitia.
Results: Although women were older than men (mean age 55.0 +/- 10.9 versus 60.4 +/- 12.2 years, P = 0.02), their target lesions were less dense (74.6 +/- 23.4 versus 86.2 +/- 22.2% of adventitial density, P = 0.02) and less often found to be calcified (20.0 versus 38.2%, P = 0.05). Similarly, reference sites in female subjects were less dense (77.6 +/- 15.3 versus 97.1 +/- 19.4% of adventitial density, P = 0.01). There was no sex difference in the severity of coronary stenosis.
Conclusions: Both qualitative and quantitative sex differences in in-vivo morphology of coronary plaques morphology were detected by IVUS measurement. Plaques in women appear less videodense and are less often calcified than are those in men. Future studies employing sequential IVUS examinations are needed in order to determine whether these morphologic differences relate to a delay in initiation of plaques, slower progression of plaques, or other sex-specific modulators of plaque composition.