Novel developments in intravascular imaging

In the development of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), a serious emphasis has been given to the improvement of the image quality in terms of resolution. The image quality is indeed a very important issue, but there is lot more information hidden in the ultrasound signals than is currently exploited by commercially available IVUS equipment. Over the past few years, at the Thorax centre we have been exploring the possibilities of analyzing sequences of radiofrequency (RF) traces. This could provide a significant extension of the functionality of the IVUS machines. It gives possibilities for local elasticity assessment, flow estimation and enhanced lumen detection. This paper is an up to date impression of where RF-data analysis has taken us.