Visualization of coronary atherosclerotic plaques in patients using optical coherence tomography: comparison with intravascular ultrasound

Jang, Ik-Kyung
Bouma, Brett E.
Kang, Dong-Heon
Park, Seung-Jung
Park, Seong-Wook
Seung, Ki-Bae
Choi, Kyu-Bo
Shishkov, Milen
Schlendorf, Kelly
Pomerantsev, Eugene
Houser, Stuart L.
Aretz, H.Thomas
Tearney, Guillermo J.

Open link

Publication date

February 2002

DOI

10.1016/S0735-1097(01)01799-5

Publisher

American College of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Abstract

AbstractObjectivesThe aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and the ability of intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) to visualize the components of coronary plaques in living patients.BackgroundDisruption of a vulnerable coronary plaque with subsequent thrombosis is currently recognized as the primary mechanism for acute myocardial infarction. Although such plaques are considered to have a thin fibrous cap overlying a lipid pool, imaging modalities in current clinical practice do not have sufficient resolution to identify thin (<65 μm) fibrous caps. Optical coherence tomography is a new imaging modality capable of obtaining cross-sectional images of coronary vessels at a resolution of approximately 10 μm.MethodsThe OC...