Intravascular ultrasound in the current percutaneous coronary intervention era.

The use of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in the cardiac catheterization laboratory has continued to evolve since its introduction nearly 15 years ago. In this review, the authors discuss the current strategies regarding the use of this imaging modality during percutaneous coronary interventions. Although routine IVUS guidance of interventions is unnecessary, the tomographic perspective provided by this modality can be very informative in selected cases. It remains unknown whether the use of emerging IVUS-based technologies such as elastography or spectral analysis is feasible for identification of vulnerable plaques.