Measuring coronary artery flow rates using intravascular optical coherence tomography to improve the assessment of percutaneous coronary intervention (Thesis)

In this project, a blood flow quantification technique was developed based on a novel backscattering indicator-dilution approach for intravascular optical coherence tomography (IV-OCT). It achieved the goal of obtaining the flow velocity in a coronary artery of interest by analyzing the backscattering signal from blood after passage of a bolus of Ringer's lactate or another transparent injectate, in parallel to thermodilution coronary flow reserve (CFR). In contrast to thermodilution CFR, the structural OCT image can be used to determine the bolus volume and transit time, as well as used to account for motion and volume change between the two ...