Intracoronary optical coherence tomography

Intracoronary optical coherence tomography is a special way that doctors can look at your heart and its blood vessels. They use a tiny camera that can take pictures of the inside of your blood vessels. This camera is called an optical coherence tomography or OCT for short.

To use the camera, your doctor will first put a thin tube called a catheter into an artery in your arm or leg. The catheter will be gently moved through your body until it reaches the blood vessels around your heart. The camera is then threaded through the catheter and into your blood vessels.

Once the camera is inside your blood vessels, it will take pictures of the walls of the vessels. These pictures can show the doctor if there are any problems like blockages or plaques that could cause a heart attack. The camera can also show how big the blood vessels are and how well blood is flowing through them.

In the end, intracoronary optical coherence tomography is a special tool that helps doctors see inside your heart and blood vessels to make sure everything is working the way it should be.