Real-Time Control of Angioplasty Balloon Inflation Based on Feedback From Intravascular Optical Coherence Tomography: Preliminary Study on an Artery Phantom

• Published in: IEEE transactions on biomedical engineering Vol. 59; no. 3; pp. 697 - 705
• Main Authors: Azarnoush, Hamed, Vergnole, Sébastien, Boulet, Benoit, DiRaddo, Robert, Lamouche, Guy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.03.2012; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Angioplasty; Angioplasty, Balloon - instrumentation; Arteries; Biological and medical sciences; Catheters; control; Control systems; Diseases of the cardiovascular system; Equipment Design; Exact sciences and technology; Feedback; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Image reconstruction; tomography; Imaging and optical processing; Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects); Medical sciences; optical coherence tomography (OCT); Optical imaging; Optics; Phantoms; Phantoms, Imaging; Physics; Probes; Radiodiagnosis. Nmr imagery. Nmr spectrometry; Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects); Real-time systems; Tomography, Optical Coherence; Transducers, Pressure; Optical coherence tomography; Angioplasty; Feedback regulation; Instrumentation therapy; Instrumental dilatation; control; Real time system; Artery; Feedback; Blood vessel; Sounding balloon; real-time systems; optical coherence tomography (OCT); Circulatory system; Biomedical engineering; Test object
• ISSN: 0018-9294; 1558-2531
• DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2011.2172685

A method is proposed to achieve computerized control of angioplasty balloon inflation, based on feedback from intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT). Controlled balloon inflation could benefit clinical applications, cardiovascular research, and medical device industry. The proposed method was experimentally tested for balloon inflation within an artery phantom. During balloon inflation, luminal contour of the phantom was extracted from IVOCT images in real time. Luminal diameter was estimated from the obtained contour and was used in a feedback loop. Based on the estimated actual diameter and a target diameter, a computer controlled a programmable syringe pump to deliver or withdraw liquid in order to achieve the target diameter. The performance of the control method was investigated under different conditions, e.g., various flow rates and various target diameters. The results were satisfactory, as the control method provided convergence to the target diameters in various experiments.