Digital angiographic assessment of the physiological changes to the regional microcirculation induced by successful coronary angioplasty

Abstract

Background: Impulse response analysis of digital coronary angiographic images calculates a parameter known as the mean transit time of the microcirculation (T(micro)). This has been shown to accurately assess the regional microcirculatory response to proximal stenosis in relation to flow. Our goal was to apply impulse response analysis to patients undergoing successful angioplasty and to quantify the induced physiological changes with respect to quantitative angiographic measurements of stenosis dimensions. Methods and Results: We studied 24 patients before and after successful single-vessel percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). Minimal luminal stenosis area was increased from 0.9±0.6 before PTCA to 4.1±1.3 mm2 after PTCA (P