Is total coronary artery plaque burden measured by cardiac computed tomography associated with metabolic syndrome?
Cardiac CT can provide a noninvasive assessment of TCPB, which was significantly associated with metabolic syndrome and its components. Measuring TCPB by CT could be an important strategy for identifying high-risk patients with suspected coronary artery disease.
These results argue against a significant contribution by exocrine transdifferentiation to the normal postnatal expansion and maintenance of beta-cell mass. Exocrine transdifferentiation has been proposed to occur during injury and regeneration, and our experimental model is suited to test this hypothesis in vivo.