ABSTRACT
The potential role of IVUS as a tomographic method in addition to angiography and other tomographic techniques would include the following:
a) Assessment of vessel wall motion b) Imaging of small pulmonary arteries (diameter
1.5-3 mm) to assess the vessel wall changes in patients with pulmonary hypertension without thromboembolic events
c) Visualization of thin, wall-adherent or ‘soft’ thrombus, not visible by angiography
d) Imaging of venous vessels for occurrence of thrombi
Figure 34.1. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in a 56-yearold patient with recurrent events of acute pulmonary embolism. A 3.5 F. 30 MHz IVUS probe was positioned into the right pulmonary artery (RPA) and its sidebranches. The IVUS probe could be advanced into the thrombus (lower left). A small lumen and a large, 'soft' thrombus with signs of thrombotic 'layering' were found. A smaller side-branch (top left) showed normal pulmonary artery anatomy.
