We have developed a new form of intravascular optical coherence tomography(IV-OCT) that allows the extremely fast acquisition of high-resolution images of the coronary arteries.This process leads to much better image quality by eliminating cardiac motion artefacts and undersampling.It relies on a catheter that incorporates a synchronous micromotor with a diameter of 1.0 mm and a rotational speed of up to5600 revolutions per second,enabling an IV-OCT frame rate of 5.6 kHz.This speed is matched by a wavelength-swept laser that generates up to 2.8 million image lines per second.With this setup,our team achieved IV-OCT imaging of up to5600 frames per second(fps) in vitro and 4000 fps in vivo,deployed at a 100 mm·s^(-1) pullback velocity.The imaging session is triggered by the electrocardiogram of the subject,and can scan a coronary artery in the phase of the heartbeat where the heart is at rest,providing a name for this new technology:the "Heartbeat OCT."
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