Novel and quick coronary image analysis by instant stent-accentuated three-dimensional optical coherence tomography system in catheterization laboratory

In order to confirm the relation between stent struts and the jailed side branch (SB), the actual wire re-crossing position and the optimal wire re-crossing position during a bifurcation stenting, we developed the instant stent-accentuated three-dimensional optical coherence tomography (iSA 3D-OCT) system based on a novel algorithm. Stent struts in two-dimensional optical coherence tomography (2D-OCT) are represented as high-intensity line segments or spots in low-intensity background. Stent struts disappear and a vessel image is created by the mean filter followed by the minimum filter. A strut image is created by subtracting a vessel image from an original image, and accentuated. By adding a vessel image to a strut image, iSA 2D-OCT is created. It took only 3 s to accentuate stent struts of 100 frames by ImageJ with its macro program. By the iSA 3D-OCT system which consists of the console of OCT, the USB selector, USB cables, the USB flash drive, the computer, and three freeware programs, it took about 65 s from an export of the image data to an observation of iSA 3D-OCT semi-automatically. During a bifurcation stenting procedure, we could confirm the relation between stent struts and the jailed SB, the actual wire re-crossing position and the optimal wire re-crossing position. Using the iSA 3D-OCT system, a detailed process during a bifurcation PCI can be observed in very short waiting time, about 65 s. It is expected to improve the outcome of a complicated bifurcation PCI by the iSA 3D-OCT system.