Ian R Pearson

Assessing Coronary Blood Flow Physiology in the Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory

Background: Contemporary management of coronary disease focuses on the treatment of stenoses in the major epicardial vessels. However, myocardial blood flow is known to be contingent on a range of factors in addition to the patency of the epicardial vessels. These include anatomical and physiological factors such as the extent of myocardium supplied by the vessel, systemic blood pres-sure, the natural variation in vascular tone in response to physiological needs which allows for coro-nary autoregulation and pathological factors such as the presence of downstream obstruction to flow due to disease of the small coronary vessels or myocardium. The assessment of clinical effectiveness and adequacy of coronary revascularisation requires the ability to comprehensively and accurately as-sess and measure myocardial perfusion. Conclusion: In this article, we review the current methods of evaluating coronary blood flow and my-ocardial perfusion in the cardiac catheterisation laboratory.

Transcoronary pacing to assess myocardial viability prior to percutaneous coronary intervention: Pilot study to assess feasibility

The assessment of myocardial viability is crucial before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is carried out to ensure that the patient will gain benefit. Trans‐coronary pacing (TCP) has previously been used to pace myocardium but may also provide information on myocardial viability.