ABSTRACT
The presence of Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) serves as an important surrogate for the development of coronary artery disease, and can have a profound effect on the quality of life in patients with claudication. Endovascular techniques are now widely used by vascular surgeons, interventional cardiologists, and interventional radiologists in the peripheral vasculature. Intravascular imaging serves as a useful adjunct to traditional angiography in the characterization and treatment of vascular disease. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is used in ophthalmology, dermatology, gastroenterology, and interventional cardiology. Similar to intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), OCT is based on the concept of reflected energy to generate cross-sectional intravascular images, with changes in time delay and intensity dependent on tissue composition. Despite the widespread acceptance of OCT in the coronary vasculature, there has been scant work to date in exploring the role of OCT in the peripheral circulation. The chapter presents some examples that serve as an atlas of lesion pathologies identified using OCT in the peripheral vasculature.
