Orientation of Intracoronary Ultrasonography: Looking Beyond the Artery

Characteristics of atherosclerotic plaque distribution in coronary artery bifurcations: an intravascular ultrasound analysis

“…In our data, the mean take-off angle for diagonal branches was 1441 clockwise from the myocardial surface, consistent with a previous report [13]. In lesions with perpendicular take-off, the wall opposite to the bifurcation had the greatest plaque accumulation.…”

“…A potential factor that may affect the results of our study is related to the orientation analysis. Although there is no absolute coordinate reference system, the identification landmarks can ascertain the orientation of vessel structures and plaque distribution especially for LAD in IVUS examination [13]. We did not perform orientation analysis for the LCx lesions because of the inability to ascertain the exact location of the endocardial surface.…”

OCT Assessment of Thin-Cap Fibroatheroma Distribution in Native Coronary Arteries

“…For TCFAs located in the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD), transversal distribution of the associated lipid core was evaluated. The cross-section displaying the largest lipid core within each detected TCFA was divided into myocardial and pericardial surfaces using the take-off of a septal branch emerging on the side of the vessel opposite the pericardium (15,16). The transverse distribution of TCFAs was considered pericardial if the lipid core area on the pericardial surface was larger than that on the myocardial surface.…”

Multi-modality intra-coronary plaque characterization: A pilot study

“…1). The cross-sectional orientation of the probe was determined by the presence of side branches visible in the longitudinal and cross-sectional views of IVUS [10] and OCT and the specifically designed, radiopaque rotation markers for IVMR. Acquisitions, in which rotation of the probe could not be clearly confirmed by the marker, were excluded from the analysis.…”