ABSTRACT
However, the reported incidence of angiographically recognized coronary thrombi in patients with unsta ble angina varies very considerably in different studies from 1.3%a to over 80%,5 and an attempt has been made to overcome the limited reproducibility of subjective evaluation by quantifying the ‘complexity’ of a given lesion in an automated manner.6 Using angioscopy, the most accurate method of identifying intracoronary thrombus, it has become apparent that contrast angiography is both an insensitive and nonspecific method for thrombus detection.7-9 The inability to image the vessel wall, the site of many of the events of interest in acute coronary disease, is a further serious drawback.
