State of the art: coronary angiography

In the early days of coronary angiography, the precise quantification of luminal narrowing was challenging. The introduction of balloon angioplasty (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty [PTCA]) by Andreas Grüntzig in 1977 was perhaps the greatest incentive to the development of quantitative coronary angiography (QCA). QCA has played a crucial role in evaluating interventional techniques and assessing the results of new technologies. With the advent of drug-eluting stents (DES), QCA metrics such as late lumen loss and diameter stenosis (restenosis) proved to be instrumental in assessing new technologies. Refinements in QCA with the advent of dedicated bifurcation analysis and three-dimensional (3D) QCA have broadened the application of QCA. Beyond angiographic metrics, new developments in the field of QCA have introduced the functional component in the assessment of coronary lesions. Angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (FFR) may be a good tool for diagnosing ischaemia-producing lesions in patients with non-complex coronary artery disease. Furthermore, the incremental functional information can be used to expand the traditional late lumen loss (LLL) and restenosis concepts.