Doppler study of phasic variations of blood flow velocity in the anterior interventricular artery

Studies of changes in coronary blood flow during cardiac cycles may be a useful adjuvant to the measurement of coronary flow reserve to evaluate the hydraulic severity of coronary arterial stenoses. We used intracoronary pulsed Doppler velocimetry to measure phasic variations of blood flow in the anterior interventricular artery of 12 patients with angiographically identified stenosis of that vessel. The Doppler signal was obtained by means of a 20 MHz emission from a source placed at the tip of a catheter selectively positioned at the ostium of the anterior interventricular artery, upstream of the stenosis. The increase in severity of stenosis was paralleled by a relative decrease of diastolic blood flow velocity in relation to systolic blood flow velocity. The diastolic/systolic maximum velocities ratio was greater than 1 in 6 patients with a less than 70 p. 100 stenosis (group A) and inferior to 1 in 6 other patients with a 70 p. 100 or more stenosis (group B). In 5 patients of group B this ratio was reversed to normal after percutaneous transluminal angiography. Thus, measurement of intracoronary blood flow velocity may be helpful to evaluate the severity of stenosis, notably in the anterior interventricular artery where angiographic evaluation is difficult.