The Clinical Emergence of Optical Coherence Tomography

o t i a d m i V Given the well-accepted limitations of coronary angiography, investigators and clinicians have had a strong interest in developing new approaches to defining the luminal encroachment, composition, and functional consequences of coronary atheromas. Intracoronary imaging techniques such as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) were the initial techniques applied for this purpose (1). The validation of fractional flow reserve (FFR) as a measure of the functional significance of intermediate coronary stenoses has also provided an important advance in our ability to determine appropriate application of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (2). More recently, advanced imaging techniques, such as virtual histology-intravascular ultrasound (VH-IVUS) to