Why is this study important? 

• Non-invasive assessment of intermediate coronary artery disease lesions is novel technology which allows operator to estimate hemodynamic lesions without the need for pressure wire. 
• AutocathFFR is an automated non-invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) assessment software device that measures FFR from digital angiography images. 

What question was this study supposed to answer?

• To assess the diagnostic performance of the AutocathFFR measurements obtained from angiograms for the wire-free determination of the presence of hemodynamically significant coronary lesions.  

What did the study show? 

• The diagnostic performance of AutocathFFR in terms of sensitivity was 91.3% and specificity was 94.5%. The positive predictive value was 82.9%, while the negative predictive value was 97.4%. The overall accuracy was 93.8% and area under curve was 93%.  
• Based on the performance describe, AutocathFFR is an artificial intelligence-based angio-derived FFR hands-free analysis which allow operators to integrate lesion and perform non-invasive FFR analysis. 
• This new technology will allow procedures to be shorter, less invasive with no need for pressure wire and avoid anticoagulation. Larger studies are required to validate the findings of this pilot study. 

All authors: M. Chadi Alraies, MD, MPH