title: Estimation of coronary blood flow by ECG gated cardiac thermography in open-chest conditions.
abstract: Thermography is suggested as a tool to estimate myocardial and coronary epicardial flow in open-chest heart surgery. To test the feasibility and compare various methods for coronary flow estimation in open-chest surgery, thermographic imaging was applied to eight open-chest dogs which were injected with cold saline into the aortic root. Blood flow in the left arterial descending (LAD) coronary vessel was measured by a transit-time flowmeter. ECG gated images were acquired for 20-30 s, while the cold saline (20 ml) was injected into the aortic root. Several flow levels were achieved during repeated hyperaemic response to transient occlusions of the LAD. A temperature response curve for each flow level was obtained by averaging over an edge-detected arterial segment for each image frame. Several indices were calculated from the temperature curve and correlated with the measured coronary flow. These include: an index based on a corrective heat transfer model (r = 0.69, p < 0.001), the slope of the descending part of the response curve (r = 0.76, p < 0.001), the peak temperature difference (r = 0.66, p < 0.001), and the area above the temperature response curve (r = 0.61, p < 0.01). As shown, coronary flow can be estimated quantitatively by intraoperative epicardial thermography, and may therefore provide important on-line information regarding blood flow during open-chest surgical procedures. Further studies are required for optimal application of this technique so as to increase its potential as a valid clinical tool.
authors.affiliation: The Heart System Research Center, Julius Silver Institute, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rispler
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sideman
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shofti
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beyar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D004285:Dogs; D006801:Humans; D013817:Thermography / Q000379:methods*; D019616:Thoracic Surgical Procedures