Coronary flow evaluation by densitometric analysis of sequences of coronarographic images.

An indicator dilution method has been designed and applied to measure coronary flow rates in patients undergoing cardiac catheterization. It requires densitometric analysis of two particular angiographic sequences of the artery of interest, acquired digitally under specific conditions imposed on the contrast medium injections. The method was tested first on a simple artery model, and then on coronarography images obtained during routine examinations of patients. A comparative analysis between a group of patients having presumably normal flows and another group exhibiting slow dye progression (SDP) shows a moderate consistency between the method and the clinical assessments.