Intravascular imaging of angioplasty balloon under-expansion during pre-dilation predicts hyperelastic behavior of coronary artery lesions

This study correlated intravascular balloon under-expansion during pre-dilation with coronary lesion stiffness. Ex vivo biaxial tests on human plaques were used to validate an OCT-based imaging model predicting hyperelastic parameters. Results revealed strong correlation between under-expansion and stiffness, enabling patient-specific modeling for stent optimization.