Functional assessment of lesion severity without using the pressure wire: coronary imaging and blood flow simulation

Hemodynamic indices derived from measurements with the pressure wire (primarily fractional flow reserve [FFR]) have been established as a reliable tool for assessing coronary stenoses and improving clinical decision making. However, the use of the pressure wire constitutes a hurdle for the universal adoption of physiology-guided patient management. Technological advancements have enabled the large-scale application of blood flow simulation (computational fluid dynamics [CFD]) to medical imaging, thereby enabling the virtual assessment of coronary physiology. Areas covered: This review summarizes the stand-alone non-invasive (coronary computed tomographic imaging) and invasive (coronary angiography) imaging approaches which were initially used for predicting FFR, and focuses on the use of blood flow modeling for functional assessment of coronary lesions in clinical practice. Expert commentary: Validation studies of CFD-derived methodologies for functional assessment have shown that virtual indices correlate well and have good diagnostic accuracy compared to pressure wire-FFR despite inherent limitations of spatial resolution and assumptions regarding boundary conditions in flow modeling. Beyond point-to-point agreement with FFR, further studies are needed to demonstrate the clinical safety/efficacy of these computational tools regarding patient outcomes. Such evidence base could support the incorporation of these methodologies into routine patient management for decision making and reliable risk stratification.