Intracoronary ultrasound evaluation of interventional technologies

The feasibility and applicability of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) of the coronary arteries were evaluated in 65 patients undergoing 70 coronary interventional procedures. Morphologic and quantitative analyses were performed with a mechanically rotated IVUS catheter (4.8Fr, 20 MHz) and with orthogonal view cineangiography. A semiautomated edge-detection algorithm was used for cineangiographic quantification. Coronary interventions included 45 percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasties, 9 excimer lasers, 11 directional coronary atherectomies, 3 rotational atherectomies and 2 stents. Most lesions consisted of a mixture of plaque composition (hard, n = 30; soft, n = 64). Other unique morphologic data by IVUS were plaque topography (eccentric, n = 34; concentric, n = 36) and vessel dissection (IVUS [n = 29] versus angiography [n = 14], p < 0.05). Postprocedure minimal lumen diameter and cross-sectional area measured by IVUS were larger and poorly correlated with angiography (r = 0.28, standard error of the estimate = 0.52 mm; r = 0.08, standard error of the estimate = 1.0 cm2, respectively). IVUS is more sensitive than angiography when assessing postintervention lesion characteristics including vessel dissection and plaque morphology. Catheter-based ultrasound appears to be a useful adjunct to contrast angiography when evaluating and comparing the therapeutic impact of conventional percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty with new technologies.