Real-Time Control of Angioplasty Balloon Inflation Based on Feedback From Intravascular Optical Coherence Tomography: Preliminary Study on an Artery Phantom

A method is proposed to achieve computerized control of angioplasty balloon inflation, based on feedback from intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT). Controlled balloon inflation could benefit clinical applications, cardiovascular research, and medical device industry. The proposed method was experimentally tested for balloon inflation within an artery phantom. During balloon inflation, luminal contour of the phantom was extracted from IVOCT images in real time. Luminal diameter was estimated from the obtained contour and was used in a feedback loop. Based on the estimated actual diameter and a target diameter, a computer controlled a programmable syringe pump to deliver or withdraw liquid in order to achieve the target diameter. The performance of the control method was investigated under different conditions, e. g., various flow rates and various target diameters. The results were satisfactory, as the control method provided convergence to the target diameters in various experiments.