Intravascular
Ultrasound The following article provides a brief
description of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS).
For more
in-depth information, late-breaking articles and interviews
with cardiologists who are using intravascular ultrasound
to improve patient care, visit
our special Intravascular
Ultrasound Center.
For many years the only way of directly
viewing the coronary arteries was through angiography,
or catheterization.
With the invention and refinement
of intravascular
coronary ultrasound (IVUS) it is became possible to thread a tiny ultrasound "camera" into
the coronary arteries to give a valuable cross-sectional view from
the inside-out, showing the physician where the normal artery wall
ends and
the plaque begins.
While not a routinely
used device -- like all catheter-based procedures, it is invasive,
and
there are costs associated with it -- in certain situations,
IVUS can aid in the selection and sizing of stents and balloons,
and can offer assurance that a stent has been properly deployed.
This is of increasing importance in the era of drug-eluting
stents. Research conducted using IVUS has also shown that one
of the causes of restenosis may be inadequate dilatation --
that physicians, concerned with injuring or dissecting the
artery itself, have tended to undersize the balloons. (See "Intravascular
Ultrasound May Help Prevent Late Stent Thrombosis")
The Future These and other new devices are
being developed continually and the information gathered
through the use of catheter-based interventions may ultimately
reveal
the true mechanism of plaque formation. As this knowledge is applied in the
field of molecular biology, promising new research and drug therapies may
provide a way to prevent restenosis and plaque formation
from occurring and yield an
answer
for conquering coronary artery disease.
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