A systematic review of imaging anatomy in predicting functional significance of coronary stenoses determined by fractional flow reserve

Abstract

Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is the current gold standard to assess the physiological significance of coronary stenoses. With the development of coronary imaging techniques, several anatomic parameters have been investigated in vivo and their associations with FFR have been studied. The aim of this review is to summarize the accuracy of anatomic parameters derived by the present coronary imaging techniques including invasive coronary angiography, coronary computed tomography angiography, intravascular ultrasound and optical coherence tomography, in predicting a significant FFR. The impact of patient characteristics, lesion locations, variability of FFR and imaging resolution on the predictive ability are discussed.

Keywords: Coronary computed tomography angiography; Fractional flow reserve; Intravascular ultrasound; Invasive coronary angiography; Optical coherence tomography.