Advances in a fully integrated intravascular OCT-ultrasound system for cardiovascular imaging

Intracoronary optical coherence tomography (OCT) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) are two popular techniques for the detection and determination of atherosclerosis. IVUS allows visualization of plaques while also providing a large penetration depth to determine plaque volume. Intracoronary OCT provides the ability to capture microscopic features associated with high risk plaque. Traditionally to utilize the benefits of both modalities, separate probes and systems had to be used one at a time to image a vessel. We present work required to create a combined OCT IVUS system capable of simultaneous imaging to detect atherosclerotic plaques. A novel integrated probe of size 0.69 mm OD featuring sequential placement of components was created to acquire co-registered images within small coronary vessels. By utilizing commercial graphics processing units (GPUs) real time visualization of acquired data is possible up to a maximum 48 frames per second per channel. In vitro studies on human coronary artery samples as well as in vivo studies in rabbits and pigs show various plaque buildups in both OCT and IVUS images which match histology results, demonstrating the capabilities of the system. © 2012 SPIE