Intravascular ultrasound is due for disruption

A critical tool

What is IVUS? Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is an imaging technique used by physicians to visualize the inside of blood vessels in real time. During minimally invasive procedures, the physician will guide a small catheter with an ultrasound probe at its tip into the artery or vein. While traditional angiography only shows a silhouette of the vessel using contrast dye, IVUS allows physicians to see detailed cross-sectional images of the vessel wall, lumen, blood flow and surrounding structures.

IVUS plays an important role in vascular procedures helping to guide decision-making before, during, and after treatment. By visualizing blood vessel abnormalities such as plaque buildup and calcium from inside the vessel, IVUS can help physicians accurately assess the severity of disease and select the most appropriate treatment. The use of IVUS in procedures such as balloon angioplasty and stenting can assist physicians to accurately size stents, ensure proper stent expansion and apposition, and identify complications like dissections or residual narrowing.

Venous disease, such as iliac vein compression, post‑thrombotic disease, and chronic venous obstruction, can be difficult to diagnose with standard X‑ray imaging alone because veins are easily compressed and may appear normal when viewed from the outside. IVUS allows physicians to directly visualize vein narrowing, scarring, or compression and accurately size venous stents.

Using IVUS during vascular interventions can help improve decision‑making and outcomes by offering a more complete understanding of vessel anatomy and supporting more tailored, patient-specific treatment strategies.

Underutilized for intervention

The utilization of IVUS for peripheral vascular interventions (PVI) is growing due to increasingly complex interventions, strengthening clinical data, and cross-specialty consensus—but it remains underutilized due to inadequate image quality and suboptimal usability.¹

IVUS technology not optimized for PVI

Legacy IVUS platforms were initially developed for coronary procedures. To date, there has been limited innovation to address the shortcomings in image quality, interpretation, and workflow that would make IVUS ideally suited for peripheral vascular applications, despite the clear clinical benefit. 

A growing need

Research indicates that more than 21 million people in the U.S. had peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in 2020. With the aging population, this number is projected to exceed 26 million by 2040.²

In 2020, over 2 million peripheral vascular interventions were performed. Recent projections estimate that more than 3 million procedures will be performed annually by 2030.^3-5