In conversation with Vascular News about IVUS, Eric Secemsky (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, USA, and a newly appointed editor of Vascular News North America) drilled down on the benefits of this technology in the vascular field.
Providing some context at the Paris Vascular Insights course (PVI; 12–14 December, Paris, France), Secemsky noted that IVUS has been available in the USA for several years, with Boston Scientific and Philips representing the two main players. He continued that interest in the technology is now rapidly increasing outside of the USA, highlighting a strong evidence base—including two prospective randomised trials—as one of the main reasons for this.
According to Secemsky, one of the main benefits of IVUS in vascular procedures is that it takes out the guesswork. Previously, he explained, operators were limited in their ability to appropriately size drug-coated devices or determine true lesion lengths due to the incompleteness of angiography alone. IVUS, Secemsky underlined, provides “the ability to make a data-driven decision”.
