Intracoronary Doppler versus new method of the assessment of coronary flow using computer analysis of conventional coronary angiograms

The aim of the study was validation of a mean brightness method and new coronary flow index CFI for the assessment of coronary flow by means of intracoronary Doppler measurements. This method utilizes the dynamics of coronary angiograms and is based on the computer analysis of conventional coronary angiograms. The contractual measure of blood flow is percent change of mean brightness of coronary artery in unit of time: cardiac cycle (%/cycle) or time in seconds (%/sec). Coronary flow was investigated in 10 patients with angiographically normal coronary artery (NCA group) and in 17 patients with single vessel stenosis (SVS group). In the SVS group, measurements were repeated twice: before and after PTCA procedure. In both groups statistically significant, positive correlations were found between both methods. In conclusion, the new CFI is very reliable, simple and easy to obtain parameters able to assess coronary flow and can be very useful in the case of comparative studies.