ROLE OF CORONARY LUMEN ENLARGEMENT IN IMPROVING CORON.ARY BLOOD FLOW A D CORONARY FLOW RESERVE AFTER BALLOO ANGIOPLASTY AND STENTING

Abstract

The intracoronary Doppler is the most widely applied technique for measurements of the coronary flow in humans. It has been advocated for use in determining the severity of intermediate stenosis (40-60%) and in evaluating whether normal blood How has been restored after PTCA. It has the advantage of permitting repeated sampling and at high frequency, thus allowing measurements after physiological or pharmacological interventions. Coronary flow reserve provides an index of the functional significance of coronary lesions that obviates some of the ambiguity in anatomical description. Coronary flow measurements complement anatomical quantification by IVUS and provide important clinical infonnation for decision making in the catheter laboratory.

The aim of this work is to assess the role of coronary blood flow and CFR in the assessment of physiological sit, rificance of coronary lesions, to study the effect of PTCA and stent on coronary blood flow and CFR in patients with coronary artery disease using intracoronary Doppler, and In some cases, the results of PTCA and stenting as evaluated by IVUS, were to be compared with coronary blood flow and CFR.