Is there replacement for percentage stenosis in characterizing occlusive vascular disease?
Characterization of vascular lesions on the basis of visual estimation of percentage stenosis is a valuable but limited procedure. In this issue, Lum et al (1) describe a fast, noninvasive four-dimensional MR method for accurate determination of pressure gradient maps, which correlate with direct pressure gradient measurements across vascular lesions in swine. This noninvasive determination of hemodynamic significance has potential to become a major advance in the diagnosis and management of vascular diseases, once it is verified in the clinical setting.
Prince
Martin R
MR
Department of Radiology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 525 E 68th St, New York, NY 10022, USA. map2008@med.cornell.edu
D001157:Arterial Occlusive Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D011312:Pressure