Journal of Clinical Medicine (Oct 2018)

Hand Laser Perfusion Imaging to Assess Radial Artery Patency: A Pilot Study

  • Ciro Indolfi,
  • Francesco Passafaro,
  • Sabato Sorrentino,
  • Carmen Spaccarotella,
  • Annalisa Mongiardo,
  • Daniele Torella,
  • Alberto Polimeni,
  • Jolanda Sabatino,
  • Antonio Curcio,
  • Salvatore De Rosa

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm7100319
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 10
p. 319

Abstract

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Objectives: To test a novel diagnostic technique to assess radial artery perfusion after transradial catheterization. Background: Despite being mostly asymptomatic, radial artery occlusion (RAO) is not a benign complication, and its diagnosis is frequently missed because it requires time-consuming diagnostic testing. We developed a novel operator-independent diagnostic test to assess RAO after coronary procedures through a transradial access (TRA) by means of hand Laser Perfusion Imaging (LPI). Methods: One hundred patients were evaluated before and after TRA by means of the LPI. A radial perfusion index (RPI) was calculated as the ratio between the total perfusion measured during ulnar occlusion and total basal perfusion. Vascular Duplex scan (VDS) was used as the standard of reference to assess the artery patency. Results: LPI correctly identified RAO in 100% of cases. Post-procedural RPI was 0.89 ± 0.13 in patients with radial patency vs. 0.15 ± 0.04 in patients with RAO (p < 0.001). In line with these results, ROC analysis showed an excellent diagnostic performance of the LPI, that correctly identified all RAO cases (Area Under the Curve, AUC = 1.0; p < 0.001), with an optimal diagnostic cutoff at 0.2 RPI. Conclusions: LPI is a reliable diagnostic technique for RAO, offering the advantages of being quick and simple to perform.

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