First generation drug-eluting stents (DES) are associated with reduced in-stent restenosis but significant increased risk of very late stent thrombosis (VLST). The absence of polymer in DES systems may reduce the occurrence of VLST. Optic coherence tomography (OCT) has been used for stent analysis as a surrogate safety endpoint. This study aimed to assess the long-term follow up of strut apposition and tissue coverage of BioMatrix™ DES by OCT. 20 patients undergoing BioMatrix™ DES (n = 15) or S-Stent™ BMS (n = 5) implantation were followed for at least 5 years and evaluated by quantitative coronary angiography, intravascular ultrasound, and OCT. The ...

FD-OCT is a new imaging technique that allows unprecedented in vivo microlevel assessment of human carotid plaque morphologic patterns and stent-vessel interactions. Prior reports describing the use of this technique have used balloon occlusion of the target vessel or iodinated contrast media to facilitate imaging. We report, for the first time, in vivo FD-OCT imaging of human carotid arteries without the use of iodinated contrast material or balloon occlusion techniques.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Stent implantation by means of percutaneous coronary intervention is the most common coronary revascularization procedure. Intravascular Optical Coherence Tomography (iOCT) is the only imaging modality with the resolution and contrast necessary to enable accurate measurements of luminal architecture and neointima stent coverage. Manual analysis of intravascular OCT pullbacks is time consuming, limiting the size and number of studies that can be performed. We developed a highly automated method for detecting stent struts and measuring tissue coverage. Candidate struts were first identified using image processing techniques. We trained a bagged decision trees ...

Abstract: Background. Novel vascular scaffolds aim at equipoise between safety and efficacy. Intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows in-vivo serial assessment of stent-vessel interactions with high resolution and frequent sampling and may complement histology assessment. We investigated the vascular response to a novel absorbable coating sirolimus-eluting stent (AC-SES) by means of serial OCT and histology evaluation in a porcine model. Methods. One AC-SES and one bare-metal stent (BMS) were implanted in separate coronary arteries of three Yucatan mini-swine. Serial OCT was performed post procedure and at 3-, 28-, 90-, and 180-day follow-up. Normalized optical density (NOD) was used for the ...

Intravascular optical coherence tomography (iOCT) is being used to assess viability of new coronary artery stent designs. We developed a highly automated method for detecting stent struts and measuring tissue coverage. We trained a bagged decision trees classifier to classify candidate struts using features extracted from the images. With 12 best features identified by forward selection, recall (precision) were 90%–94% (85%–90%). Including struts deemed insufficiently bright for manual analysis, precision improved to 94%. Strut detection statistics approached variability of manual analysis. Differences between manual and automatic area measurements were 0.12 ± 0.20 mm 2 and 0.11 ...

Introduction This document is complementary to an Expert Review Document on Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) for the study of coronary arteries and atherosclerosis.1 The goal of this companion manuscript is to provide a practical guide framework for the appropriate use and reporting of the novel frequency domain (FD) OCT imaging to guide interventional procedures, with a particular interest on the comparison with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS).1–4 Technique for optical coherence tomography imaging In the OCT Expert Review Document on Atherosclerosis, a comprehensive description of the physical principles for OCT imaging and time domain (TD) catheters (St Jude Medical ...

The rupture of thin-cap fibroatheroma accounts for most acute coronary events. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) allows quantification of fibrous cap (FC) thickness in vivo. Conventional manual analysis, by visually determining the thinnest part of the FC is subject to inter-observer variability and does not capture the 3-D morphology of the FC. We propose and validate a computer-aided method that allows volumetric analysis of FC. The radial FC boundary is semi-automatically segmented using a dynamic programming algorithm. The thickness at every point of the FC boundary, along with 3-D morphology of the FC, can be quantified. The method was validated against ...