Head-to-head comparison of quantitative measurements between intravascular imaging systems: An in vitro phantom study

Takeshi Nishi; Shinji Imura; Hideki Kitahara; Yoshio Kobayashi; Paul G Yock; Peter J Fitzgerald; Yasuhiro Honda

doi:10.1016/j.ijcha.2021.100867

Head-to-head comparison of quantitative measurements between intravascular imaging systems: An in vitro phantom study

Int J Cardiol Heart Vasc. 2021 Sep 1:36:100867. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcha.2021.100867. eCollection 2021 Oct.

Authors

Takeshi Nishi^{1

2

3}, Shinji Imura¹, Hideki Kitahara², Yoshio Kobayashi², Paul G Yock¹, Peter J Fitzgerald¹, Yasuhiro Honda¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford, CA, USA.
² Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan.
³ Department of Cardiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Kurashki, Okayama, Japan.

Abstract

Introduction: The present study aimed to compare the accuracy of quantitative measurements by contemporary intravascular imaging systems including optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI), frequency domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT), and 6 intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) systems.

Methods: We imaged five cylindrical phantom models made from an acrylic resin with known lumen diameters (1.51, 2.03, 3.04, 4.04, and 5.04 mm, respectively) using OFDI (FastView and LUNAWAVE, Terumo), FD-OCT (Dragonfly JP and ILUMIEN OPTIS, Abbott Vascular), and 6 mechanically rotating IVUS systems including a system, two 40-MHz, one 45-MHz, two 60-Mhz and one broad-band frequency IVUS systems. The OFDI, FD-OCT, and IVUS images were obtained using automated motorized pullback in a tank filled with 37-degree Celsius saline and, in cases of OFDI and FD-OCT, contrast-saline mixture (1:1 ratio) and contrast under the system setting of the refractive index for the corresponding flush medium.

Results: All the imaging systems showed good accuracy and excellent precision of lumen measurement with the relative differences between the measured diameter and actual phantom diameter being ranging from -2.9% to 8.0% and minimum standard deviations of the measured diameters (≤0.02 mm).

Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that contemporary intravascular imaging systems including OFDI, FD-OCT, and IVUS provided clinically acceptable accuracy and excellent precision of quantitative lumen measurement in phantom models in vitro across a wide range of dimensions. Future research to confirm these findings in vivo are warranted.

Keywords: Intravascular ultrasound; Optical coherence tomography.