Nakagawa I, Kotsugi M, Park HS, et al. - Since vulnerable plaques are a strong predictor of cerebrovascular ischemic events, and high lipid core plaques (LCPs) are connected with an increased risk of embolic infarcts during carotid artery stenting (CAS), researchers sought to determine whether the outcomes of an assessment of high LCPs by catheter-based near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) correlate with the results of magnetic resonance (MR) plaque imaging. Eighty-two consecutive symptomatic carotid artery stenosis patients who were treated with CAS under NIRS and MR plaque assessment were recruited. In symptomatic individuals with unstable carotid plaques, a high LCP assessed by NIRS correlates with the signal intensity ratio of MR imaging.