ABSTRACT
There are more differences between IVUS and coronary angiography than there are similarities. Atherosclerosis is a disease of the arterial wall; angiography visualizes the arterial lumen. Coronary arteries are complex three-dimensional structures with branch points, tortuous segments, and bends; IVUS provides tomographic imaging while coronary angiography is a shadowgraph technique that visualizes the lumen in multiple projected longitudinal “silhouettes”. Atherosclerosis is a diffuse process involving entire arterial segments; angiography assesses coronary artery disease by comparing stenotic with supposedly “normal” segments. This chapter describes the differences between IVUS and angiography that have been described by multiple investigators and that are important to understanding the clinical uses of IVUS. The figures and tables are based on a single-center analysis of over 3000 unselected patients-stable and unstable, interventional and diagnostic, etc.
