A Novel Ultrasound-Derived Virtual Fractional Flow Reserve for Identifying Coronary Heart Disease

Chenguang Li, MD, PhD, Yizhe Wu, MD, PhD, Zhiqiang Pei, MD, PhD, Department of Cardiology, Shanghai Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University; Yihui Cao, Assistant Professor, and Rui Zhu, Associate Professor, Xi'an Institute of Optics and precision machinery, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is widely used for the assessment of myocardial ischemia. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is an intracoronary imaging method that provides information about lumen and vessel morphology. We developed a method to calculate IVUS-derived FFR  (IVUS-FFR), which is based an original fluid dynamics-based and a machine learning algorithms, for the assessment of myocardial ischemia. It is a relatively simple technique that can accurately evaluate the anatomical severity of coronary lesions, and therefore it is expected to help clarify the detailed association and true frequency of mismatch between anatomy and physiology.