[Experimental evaluation of the accuracy and safety of intraluminal ultrasound]

In this in vitro investigation, we studied the feasibility and accuracy as well as the safety of intravascular ultrasound imaging. Plastic cylinders were used in order to validate measurements of luminal area, perimeter, diameter, and wall thickness. Fifty-nine segments of human arteries were also examined by intravascular ultrasound; then the results regarding the luminal area, perimeter, and wall thickness were compared with the corresponding histopathologic section. Close correlations were found in plastic cylinder studies (r = 0.999, 0.999, 0.998, and 0.994 for area, perimeter, diameter, and wall thickness, respectively). There was also an excellent correlation between intravascular ultrasound imaging and pathologic measurements (r = 0.993, 0.994, and 0.915 for luminal area, perimeter, and wall thickness). Five different cylinders, with a volume of 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 mls, were employed to evaluate the effect of ultrasound on temperature. Ten blood samples anticoagulated with EDTA were used to detect the effects of ultrasound on blood elements. In the course of time, the ultrasound caused a slight increase of solution temperature (from 23.9 degrees C to 24.6 degrees C after 1-h examination in a 2-ml cylinder) and the temperature change became less obvious as the solution volume increased (the temperature raised 0.3 degrees C in the 2-ml cylinder, 0.1 degrees C in the 20-ml cylinder, but no change was detectable in the 50-ml cylinder after 10 min). No significant differences about WBC, RBC, and platelet counts were found between test and control group (p greater than 0.1) before and 5, 10, 15, 30, and 60 min after ultrasound examination.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)