Intraluminal real-time ultrasonic imaging: Clinical perspectives

Intravascular, real-time, high-resolution echography is an exciting new development. It produces circumferential images of the artery segment of interest and allows measurement of lumen dimensions, wall thickness and extent of wall disease. This unprecedented diagnostic potential opens new horizons for clinical research and practical applications are rapidly emerging. It can be used to characterise and quantify the degree of arterial Table 3. Future perspectivesCombination with ablation techniques Combination with pressure measurement Combination with Doppler velocimetry Three-dimensional reconstruction Tissue characterisation Forward (down-stream) imagingdisease, to study its natural history, and to grade the effects of pharmacologic interventions. It will become a major adjunct to second-generation angioplasty procedures, as a guidance tool and for the immediate evaluation of results, since it is more easy to use and provides unique information much faster than other imaging modalities.