Impact of intravascular ultrasonography in the endovascular management of aortoiliac occlusive disease

Abstract

Intravascular ultrasonography (IVUS) is one of several new imaging technologies that have been applied in the treatment of arterial occlusive disease. Endovascular procedures are increasing annually, and arteriography, which is thought to be the “gold standard” for assessing adequacy of endovascular therapy, appears to have flaws. IVUS, a new imaging technique that expands the understanding of atherosclerotic lesions, images a vessel in a cross-sectional plane and provides information about the morphology of the lesion and the vessel wall. IVUS clearly visualizes the spatial relationship between a deployed stent and the vessel wall; this information is not usually obtainable with arteriography. We conducted 2 studies at our institution to evaluate the use of IVUS in the endovascular treatment of atherosclerotic aortoiliac occlusive disease. The first study showed that actual vessel size and lumen diameter were underestimated 62% of the time by arteriography and that 40% of stents (P < .01) placed in the iliac arterial system were underdeployed, which might be related to treatment failure. The second study showed that the use of IVUS had a positive effect on the long-term patency of angioplastied and stented iliac lesions—all of these reconstructions have remained patent to date. IVUS appears to be the best means of assessing morphology of the arterial occlusive lesions and the results of endovascular intervention. IVUS provides valuable information related to diagnosis and treatment that can alter the conduct of endovascular procedures.