A signal processing system for the analysis of coronary hemodynamics based on guidewire measurements

State-of-the-art sensor technology permits development of miniaturized probes to perform intracoronary measurements. To facilitate signal analysis and diagnostic interpretation, we developed a computer based signal processing system for on-line use to acquire, store, display and process intracoronary signals of peak Doppler flow velocity and coronary pressures. The system consists of a desktop workstation (Apple Macintosh 840 av) that is equipped with an A/D processing board (NB-MIO 16X, National Instruments). Acquisition is controlled by a graphical user interface simulating a virtual instrument (LabView 3.0). ECG, Doppler velocity and pressure are continuously displayed and can be stored in 40s time blocks to document hemodynamics at baseline conditions and after pharmacologic interventions such as adenosine or dipyridamole to delineate coronary reserve. Signal analysis is performed using commercially available software (Mathlab 4.0). With this system, graphical displays of coronary hemodynamics such as pressure velocity curves under different conditions can be quickly generated and presented to the physician during the catheterization procedure.