Physicians from Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital and USF Health's interventional cardiology team recently was the first to treat a cardiac patient with high frequency optical coherence tomography, or HF-OCT, a novel intravascular imaging technology, the hospital said May 12.
Using Gentuity's HF-OCT Imaging System, the team successfully treated a patient with critical coronary artery disease.
The system, along with the use of a micro-imaging catheter that is 60 percent smaller than current intravascular imaging devices, gives physicians a microscopic look at the inside of a patient's blood vessel, and allows them to view very narrowed vessels that they would otherwise not be able to see.
"The case was performed on a patient with critical coronary artery disease who received three stents and the HF-OCT helped guided stent selection and optimization with excellent results," said Hiram Bezerra, MD, director of the interventional cardiology center at USF Health and Tampa General Hospital's heart and vascular institute. "This breakthrough technology consists of a next generation high-speed laser technology that allows image acquisition of the entire vessel in one second," added Dr. Bezerra, who is also a professor and section chief of interventional cardiology at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine in Tampa.
Tampa General Hospital is one of three hospitals participating in a clinical study evaluating the use of Gentuity's HF-OCT system, and is the first to have employed the technology.
"We will continue to participate and lead the efforts in identifying new applications for this technology in future clinical trials and incorporate HF-OCT as a routine adjunctive image for our coronary interventional arsenal."