OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) in Angioplasty – new Kid on the block

At the Holy Spirit Hospital, you are in the hands of some of the qualified, capable and
experienced professionals in the country. The Heart Centre has cutting edge
technology being put to use in all kinds of cardiac procedures, (complex angioplasties
/ pacemakers/ heart failure devices). The department of cardiac surgery is also a
centre par excellence, specializing in valve surgeries / redo-bypass surgeries.
Angioplasty is a procedure in which a catheter –guided balloon is used to open a
narrowed coronary artery. A stent is usually placed at the narrowed section during
angioplasty. One of the major technological advancements in this millennium has
been the advent of OCT during coronary angioplasty.
With OCT, using a specialized catheter inside the arteries of the heart, Interventional
Cardiologist can obtain images of the blood vessels that are about the same as if they
were looking at them under a microscope .
OCT uses near-infrared light to create images of the inside of the coronary arteries
and this technique delivers high-resolution images. OCT is used along with heart
catheterization procedures, including angioplasty, where OCT images can help
cardiologists see if a stent is holding an artery open and whether the stent is
positioned correctly against the artery wall.
At the Holy Spirit Heart Centre, the hospital has honoured the promise of providing
quality health care at nominal rates to the society, this making sure that such newer
technologies are within the reach of the common man.

Dr. Amit Sharma
Interventional Cardiologist