It is evident that pulmonary artery IVUS has many potential clinical applications. Preliminary studies in pulmonary artery stenosis have shown that it is a useful technique for evaluating the effects of balloon angioplasty. Therefore, it may also be useful in guiding stent placement. Recently, it has been shown that these catheters can be placed into […]
Despite the advantages of pulmonary IVUS imaging over other currently available techniques, there are limitations with this method that need to be overcome. First, the proximal pulmonary arteries are large and often beyond the penetration of 12 to 30 MHz ultrasound frequencies: 5 to 20 mm depth penetration depending on the frequency used. Therefore, lower […]
Pulmonary vascular stiffness responses are assessed using both pulmonary artery pulse pressure and intravascular ultrasound-derived pulmonary artery area changes in the cardiac cycle. The pulmonary artery stiffness responses to nitroglycerin in patients with secondary pulmonary hypertension are variable and not predicted by the change in mean pulmonary artery pressure or pulmonary vascular resistance. These data […]
The focal pulmonary artery stenoses were balloon dilated, resulting in increases in lumen area. The IVUS findings were associated with an improvement in pulmonary artery hemodynamics. Assessment of Response to Drug Therapy: Pulmonary artery IVUS has been used to detect different pulmonary vascular area responses to dobu-tamine and nitroglycerin in patients with chronic heart failure […]
Secondary pulmonary hypertension may occur in response to pulmonary parenchymal disease, leftsided heart failure, or mitral valve disease. Intravascular ultrasound has been used to detect abnormalities in vessel wall thickness in pulmonary hypertension secondary to left-sided heart failure, and to determine how this correlates with wall stiffness. Pulmonary IVUS (6F 20 MHz) of vessels from […]
Chronic Pulmonary Thromboembolic Disease: Recent clinical studies have also showed the ability of pulmonary IVUS to diagnose chronic pulmonary thromboemboli. Ricou et al used an 8F 20 MHz IVUS catheter to detect abnormalities in the left and right pulmonary arteries of patients with chronic thromboemboli. These abnormalities were described as either marked thickening of the […]
Using a disposable 6F 20 MHz ultrasound probe in isolated pulmonary artery segments of dogs, it has been shown that IVUS-derived measurements of pulmonary artery area, diameter, and wall thickness correlated very well with anatomic measurements in vitro (Fig 1). In this preliminary study, pulmonary IVUS images in humans were also obtained and provided detailed […]