Intracoronary Ultrasound in Assessing Efficacy of Cardiovascular Drugs

Despite substantial advances in our approach to prevent cardiovascular disease, there is an ongoing need to develop new therapeutic strategies to achieve more effective reduction in cardiovascular risk. Intravascular ultrasound imaging of the coronary arteries has been increasingly employed in clinical trials to evaluate the impact of medical therapies on the progression of atherosclerosis. In addition to the ability to assess whether novel agents can slow disease progression, these studies have provided a number of important insights into the factors that underlie the natural history of disease progression.