Alterations Of Coronary Blood Flow Following Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Detected By Transthoracic Echocardiography In Patients With Coronary Disease And Its Clinical Implications

OBJECTIVES To evaluate technical feasibility and clinical implications in the interrogation of coronary blood flow by transthoracic echocardiography with the modalities of coronary color-coded Doppler flow imaging (TTE-CDFI) and coronary pulsed-wave flow imaging (TTE-CPWI); to observe the alterations of conduct coronary blood flow and apical myocardial flow perfusion before and after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) interrogated by TTE-CDFI/CPWI in patients with coronary disease; to determine whether TTE-CDFI and TTE-CPWI are accurate in the assessment of coronary hemodynamic changes following the therapies.METHODS Forty-eight patients (27 males, 21 females, aged 62±16) with coronary artery disease of left anterior descending branches (LAD) who underwent a successful PCI were included in this study. TTE-CDFI and TTE-CPWI, and coronary angiography(CAG) were performed in all patients. TTE-CDFI-derived parameters included blood flow signals of each segment of LAD and its branches, and apical myocardial perfusion score(AMP); TTE-CPWI-derived parameters included systolic peak velocity(SPV), diastolic peak velocity(DPV), systolic velocity-time integrate (VTIs) and diastolic velocity-time integrate...