Intravascular thermographic assessment in human coronary atherosclerotic plaques by a novel flow-occluding sensing catheter: a safety and feasibility study.

Objective: To report the safety and feasibility of a new occluding thermographic catheter in patients with coronary artery disease.

Background: Although plaque temperature heterogeneity is shown in atheromatous plaques, significant underestimation is encountered due to the cooling effect of the uninterrupted blood flow.

Methods: The catheter was positioned at the stenotic site.

Lesion length assessment using a new vessel caliper.

Assessment of coronary lesion length using visual estimation or quantitative coronary angiography can be unreliable. We tested the accuracy of a new handheld caliper device to measure lesion length in a bench-top model and in eight patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Caliper-derived length measurements were compared to the known reference distance in the bench-top model and visual or intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-derived measurements in vivo.