ORIGINAL PAPER The impact of Fourier-Domain optical coherence tomography catheter induced motion artefacts on quantitative measurements of a PLLA-based bioresorbable scaffold N. S. van Ditzhuijzen • A. Karanasos • N. Bruining • M. van den Heuvel • O. Sorop • J. Ligthart • K. Witberg • H. M. Garcia-Garcia • F. Zijlstra • D. J. Duncker • H. M. M. van Beusekom • E. Regar Received: 26 November 2013 / Accepted: 9 May 2014 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract Intracoronary Fourier-Domain optical coher- ence tomography (FD-OCT) enables imaging of the coro- nary artery within 2–4 seconds, a so far unparalleled speed. Despite such fast data acquisition, cardiac and respiratory motion can cause artefacts due to longitudinal displace- ment of the catheter within the artery. We studied the influence of longitudinal FD-OCT catheter displacement on serial global lumen and scaffold area measurements in coronary arteries of swine that received PLLA-based bi- oresorbable scaffolds. In 10 swine, 20 scaffolds (18 9 3.0 mm) were randomly implanted in two epicardial coronary arteries. Serial FD-OCT imaging was performed immediately after implantation (T1) and at 3 (T2) and 6 months (T3) follow-up. Two methods for the selection of OCT cross-sections were compared. Method A did not take into account longitudinal displacement of the FD-OCT catheter. Method B accounted for longitudinal displace- ment of the FD-OCT catheter. Fifty-one OCT pullbacks of 17 scaffolds were serially analyzed. The measured scaffold length differed between time points, up to one fourth of the total scaffold length, indicating the presence of longitudi- nal catheter displacement. Between method A and B, low error was demonstrated for mean area measurements. Correlations between measurements were high: R 2 ranged from 0.91 to 0.99 for all mean area measurements at all time points. Considerable longitudinal displacement of the FD-OCT catheter was observed, diminishing the number of truly anatomically matching cross-sections in serial inves- tigations. Global OCT dimensions such as mean lumen and scaffold area were not significantly affected by this dis- placement. Accurate co-registration of cross-sections, however, is mandatory when specific regions, e.g. jailed side branch ostia, are analyzed. Keywords Optical coherence tomography Á OCT Á Bioresorbable vascular scaffold Á Motion artefact Abbreviations OCT Optical coherence tomography FD Fourier-Domain TD Time-Domain PLLA Poly-L-lactid acid T Time point ROI Region of interest LA Lumen area SA Scaffold area CA Coverage area ICC Intra-class correlation coefficient IVUS Intravascular ultrasound Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10554-014-0447-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. N. S. van Ditzhuijzen Á A. Karanasos Á N. Bruining Á M. van den Heuvel Á O. Sorop Á J. Ligthart Á K. Witberg Á F. Zijlstra Á D. J. Duncker Á H. M. M. van Beusekom Á E. Regar (&) Department of Cardiology, Thoraxcenter, BA-585, Erasmus University Medical Center, ‘s-Gravendijkwal 230, 3015 CE Rotterdam, The Netherlands e-mail: e.regar@erasmusmc.nl N. S. van Ditzhuijzen Á M. van den Heuvel Á O. Sorop Á D. J. Duncker Á H. M. M. van Beusekom Division of Experimental Cardiology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands N. S. van Ditzhuijzen Á A. Karanasos COEUR Cardiovascular Research School, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands H. M. Garcia-Garcia Cardialysis B.V., Rotterdam, The Netherlands 123 Int J Cardiovasc Imaging DOI 10.1007/s10554-014-0447-3