Table 1.

A comparison between the various intracoronary imaging modalities discussed in this article.

Modality	Resolution	Penetration	Contrast mechanism	Pullback rate	Flushing
IVUS	100–200 μm	Whole artery	Acoustic scattering	0.5 mm/s	Not required
OCT/OFDI	20 μm	1–2 mm	Optical scattering	OCT: 1 mm/s OFDI: 20–40 mm/s	Required
NIRF	250–1000 μm	Whole artery	Fluorescence	1 mm/s	Not required
MSOT	100–200 μm	Whole artery	Optical absorption spectrum	0.1 mm/min	May not be required in specific wavelength bands (e.g., the near- infrared window)

The values in the table are typical for in vivo applications. For MSOT, the values are estimates based on state-of-the-art technology. The pullback rate was calculated for four wavelengths, a pulse repetition rate of 10 Hz, 300 A-scans per slice and a step size of 200 μm.

IVUS: Intravascular ultrasound; MSOT: Multispectral optoacoustic tomography; NIRF: Near-infrared fluorescence; OCT: Optical coherence tomography; OFDI: Optical frequency domain imaging.