Coronary and Peripheral Artery Hemodynamics

Coronary artery disease is the underlying condition responsible for ischemic heart disease. It is imperative for cardiologists to understand coronary physiology in health and disease states. Invasive methods for determining the hemodynamic significance of coronary lesions observed on coronary angiography include coronary flow reserve and fractional flow reserve. The hemodynamic principles behind these techniques and their application to the clinical assessment of patients with ischemic heart disease will be discussed in this chapter.