title: Assessment of coronary plaque with optical coherence tomography and high-frequency ultrasound.
abstract: This study compares the ability of intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) and high-frequency intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) to image highly stenotic human coronary arteries in vitro. Current imaging modalities have insufficient resolution to perform risk stratification based on coronary plaque morphology. OCT is a new technology capable of imaging at a resolution of 5 to 20 microm, which has demonstrated the potential for coronary arterial imaging in prior experiments. Human postmortem coronary arteries with severely stenotic segments were imaged with catheter-based OCT and IVUS. The OCT system had an axial resolution of 20 microm and a transverse resolution of 30 microm. OCT was able to penetrate and image near-occlusive coronary plaques. Compared with IVUS, these OCT images demonstrated superior delineation of vessel layers and lack of ring-down artifact, leading to clearer visualization of the vessel plaque and intima. Histology confirmed the accuracy and high contrast of vessel layer boundaries seen on OCT images. Thus, catheter-based OCT systems are able to image near-occlusive coronary plaques with higher resolution than that of IVUS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Patwari
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Weissman
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Boppart
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jesser
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stamper
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Brezinski
mesh_terms: D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014054:Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional