Pressure-based simultaneous CFR and FFR measurements: understanding the physiology of a stenosed vessel

Arterial stenosis is known to be one of the most serious cardiovascular diseases. Angiographical estimation of arterial stenosis provides limited information on the severity of the occlusion and the flow of blood through it. Hemodynamical assessment of the flow and pressure behaviour, is known to be clinically important. Hemodynamically based parameters, such as pressure based myocardial fractional flow reserve (FFR) and the flow based coronary flow reserved (CFR) were introduced to provide a much better tool for treating arterial diseases. We have developed a new method for simultaneous measurement of pressure-derived CFR and FFR. The advantage of pressure derived hemodynamic parameters is very substantial, and its relatively straightforward application in clinical setting is solid. The method has been validated by means of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the arterial stenosis and in vitro bench studies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.