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[Intravascular ultrasound findings in calcifying arteriosclerosis: in vitro validation using "soft" roentgen images]
M Meine1, A Machraoui, G Dasbach
1Abteilung für Biomedizinische Technik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Aim:
The aim of this study was to validate the detection of calcified arteriosclerotic plaques with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS).
Method:
181 arteries were examined by 20/30 MHz IVUS. The ultrasound cross-sections were compared to the corresponding radiologic (30 kV) and histologic cross-sections.
Results:
Calcified lesions were imaged as bright echos with shadowing. In 13 cases of 161 calcified lesions were too small to detect by IVUS. In 5 ultrasonic sections the diagnosis "calcified lesion" could not be verified neither by radiology nor by histology. The sensitivity was 91.6%, the specificity was 94.7% and the accuracy was 93.0%.
Conclusions:
Because of the acoustic properties of calcium, calcified lesions can be detected accurately by IVUS. IVUS can generate new insights into the effect of plaque composition on the response to catheter therapies.