Intravascular Ultrasound for the Peripheral Vasculature-Current Applications and New Horizons

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is a proven and rapidly developing imaging modality that can be used for a multitude of both diagnostic and interventional purposes. By allowing for superior intraluminal characterization, compared with angiography, IVUS has emerged as a technically valuable tool in interventional procedures such as transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt/direct intrahepatic portosystemic shunt, venous interventions (May Thurner stenting, inferior vena cava filter placement, recanalization in the setting of chronic venous thrombosis/insufficiency), percutaneous fenestration in the setting of aortic dissection and angioplasty. Additional applications evaluating coronary arteries and plaque morphology have been described, but are outside the scope of this review. In addition to IVUS's merit as a pre- and intra-procedural guidance modality, there are also several advantages compared to the gold standard of angiography which include decreased need for iodinated contrast, decreased radiation exposure and decreased procedural times in certain cases. With current research, such as that aimed at supraharmonic imaging, further improvements in imaging depth, resolution and contrast to noise ratio are on the horizon.