title: Lesion length assessment using a new vessel caliper.
abstract: Assessment of coronary lesion length using visual estimation or quantitative coronary angiography can be unreliable. We tested the accuracy of a new handheld caliper device to measure lesion length in a bench-top model and in eight patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Caliper-derived length measurements were compared to the known reference distance in the bench-top model and visual or intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-derived measurements in vivo. In the coronary model, caliper-derived measurements were accurate and correlated well with known reference distances regardless of the angiographic projection. During PCI, there was a poor correlation between the best visual estimate of length and IVUS-derived measurements. In contrast, caliper-derived measurements correlated closely with IVUS-derived measurements. This handheld caliper provides a simple and accurate method of assessing intracoronary lesion length and may be particularly useful during coronary stenting and when adjunctive brachytherapy is performed.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wolyn
authors.forename: Simon R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.forename: Steven L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Almany
authors.forename: Joe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Korotko
authors.forename: Raywin R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: William W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: O'Neill
mesh_terms: D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D015641:Radiography, Interventional / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods