Densitometric determination of the flow distribution in the bifurcation of the left coronary artery

摘要

Abstract: The long term goal of this research is to determine the clinical relevance of stenosis. Where most QCA algorithms calculate the decrease in lumen from one angiocardiogram, we seek to determine directly the influence of the stenosis on the blood flow. The method uses only a slightly different clinical approach as compared to 'traditional' non- interventional catheterizations. Instead of injecting a steady flow of contrast agent, we propose to inject a string of small droplets. The resulting string of droplets will enable us to estimate the relative blood flow by measuring their time of arrival in some designated regions. Repeating the same procedure after administering a vasodilative drug, we obtain a relative decrease (or less increase) in blood flow in one of the two distal branches of the bifurcation due to the presence of stenosis. From the resulting X-ray image sequence multiple frames are selected, and the information is combined to find the relative blood velocity. The conclusion is that it is possible to use sequences of images instead of just one image to calculate quantitative results. Major problems to overcome are the respiratory- and heart-motions, and differences in acquisition parameters between runs. The usefulness of the new method in real clinical applications and the coherence with other measures are currently under trial. !34