The precise determination of vascular lumen and stent diameters: correlation among calibrated angiography, intravascular ultrasound, and pressure-fixed specimens.
OBJECTIVE
Luminal diameters measured in vivo by calibrated-catheter angiography and by intravascular ultrasound were correlated with those obtained from pressure-fixed histologic cross-sections to determine the accuracy of both methods.


METHODS
Angiographic and endosonographic diameter measurements were performed in the center of stents placed in the iliac arteries of 10 miniature pigs and were compared with luminal and stent diameters in postmortem, pressure-fixed, histologic cross-sections from identical locations.


RESULTS
Compared with histologic diameters, magnification-corrected angiographic measurements still magnified vascular luminal diameters by 0.7 +/- 0.71 mm (r = 0.41, Pearson; p < 0.003, Wilcoxon, matched pairs), whereas intravascular ultrasound measurements proved to be almost identical to the histologic lumina (r = 0.95, Pearson; p > 0. 5, Wilcoxon, matched pairs). Similarly, stent diameters correlated well between endosonographic and histologic measurements (r = 0.91; p = 0.002), and less well between angiographic and histologic diameters (r = 0.62; p = 0.002).


CONCLUSIONS
Since calibrated angiography still overestimates vascular lumina, endosonography is the preferred technique for accurate in vivo measurements.
Froelich
J J
JJ
Medizinisches Zentrum für Radiologie, Abteilung für Strahlendiagnostik, Klinikum der Philipps-Universität, Baldingerstrasse, D-35043 Marburg, Germany.
Hoppe
M
M
Nahrstedt
C
C
Barth
K H
KH
Wagner
H J
HJ
Klose
K J
KJ
D000792:Angiography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D000818:Animals; D001158:Arteries / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002138:Calibration; D019160:Endosonography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007083:Iliac Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D012016:Reference Values; D015607:Stents; D013552:Swine; D013556:Swine, Miniature