title: Safety and usefulness of non-occlusion image acquisition technique for optical coherence tomography.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Because optical coherence tomography (OCT) requires balloon-occlusion to overcome image attenuation by blood, the present study investigated the safety and usefulness of a new non-occlusive technique.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 40 angina patients were assigned to the continuous-flushing method or the balloon-occlusion method group. The continuous-flushing method was superior for observing proximal lesions compared with the balloon-occlusion method (94% vs 55%, p=0.01). There were no differences between groups in the visible length and image quality. There were no major complications during OCT.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The continuous-flushing method is safe and useful for OCT.
authors: Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan. hkataiwa@wakayama-med.ac.jp
authors: Hideaki
authors: H
authors: Kataiwa
authors: Atsushi
authors: A
authors: Tanaka
authors: Hironori
authors: H
authors: Kitabata
authors: Toshio
authors: T
authors: Imanishi
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Akasaka
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000787:Angina Pectoris / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012449:Safety; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*