Coronary physiologic assessment based on angiography and intracoronary imaging

Despite the current evidence supporting clinical benefits of fractional flow reserve (FFR), its uptake in the cardiac catheterization laboratory has been slow due to procedural cost and increased time with the need for maximum hyperemia. Recently, novel physiological indices derived from coronary angiography and intracoronary imaging have emerged to overcome issues with a wire-based FFR. Angiography-based FFR can be measured without vessel instrumentation and has shown excellent diagnostic performance using wire-based FFR as the reference standard. Thus, angiography-based FFR may facilitate coronary functional assessment before and after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Angiography-based index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR) is another new computational index for assessing the coronary microcirculation. Although angiography-derived IMR remains in an early phase of development and requires further validation, its less-invasive nature may help broaden the adoption of microvascular functional assessment in various conditions such as myocardial infarction and cardiac allograft vasculopathy. Lastly, computational FFR based on intravascular ultrasound and optical coherence tomography allows detailed lesion assessment from both morphological and functional standpoints. Given a growing interest in physiology-guided PCI optimization strategies, intravascular imaging-based FFR may become the main assessment tool to confirm successful PCI.