Blood Vessel Imaging
Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is a major tool for visualizing cross sections of diseased blood vessels with high frequency (≥ 20 MHz) side-looking ultrasound imaging catheters. IVUS is used for two primary purposes during coronary interventional treatments:
(1). For determining the right size of a stent. Precise size measurement of a coronary vessel is a prerequisite in choosing the precise stent size; otherwise, the risk of a patient experiencing restenosis is higher. The high spatial resolution in IVUS is required since the vessel boundary is defined by microstructures of media layers underneath intima layers.
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(2). For confirming the conditions of the stent expansion after deployment. Mal-apposed stents having submillimeter gap between the stent struts and lumen boundaries need to be identified for the purpose of decision-making of post treatments, e.g. additional expansion. Additionally, stents deployed over side vessel branches are why the high spatial resolution in IVUS is required to reduce the risk of restenosis.
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For IVUS to perform these purposes by identifying peripheral vessel structures or stent struts, high image qualities, especially spatial resolution is one of the key parameters to be optimized.