Single cardiac cycle three-dimensional intracoronary optical coherence tomography.

While high-speed intracoronary optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides three-dimensional (3D) visualization of coronary arteries , imaging speeds remain insufficient to avoid motion artifacts induced by heartbeat, limiting the clinical utility of OCT. In this paper, we demonstrate development of a high-speed intracoronary OCT system (frame rate: 500 frames/s, pullback speed: 100 mm/s) along with prospective electrocardiogram (ECG) triggering technology, which enabled volumetric imaging of long coronary segments within a single cardiac cycle (70 mm pullback in 0.7 s) with minimal cardiac motion artifact. This technology permitted detailed visualization of 3D architecture of the coronary arterial wall of a swine and fine structure of the implanted stent.