TMI has developed a novel research program to study the coronary vasculature through the creation of high resolution polymer casts of cadaveric hearts with sub millimeter branch details. These models are used to collect quantitative data on the local geometry of bifurcations including the left main bifurcations in the human coronary vasculature. In addition, the casts are used to classify and quantify any disease present in the cadaveric vascular beds. These efforts have revealed a wide range of main vessel and side branch bifurcation diameters as well as multi-scale asymmetric ostial geometry transitioning from the main vessel to the side branch.

Preliminary findings from this ongoing research were reported at the 2007 annual meetings of the European Bifurcation Club (EBC) and Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) by Mary Russell, MD, FACC, Eitan Konstantino, PhD, and Gary Binyamin, PhD.

Future programs include male versus female analysis of casts, correlation to clinical findings and validation of commercial imaging modalities (such as QCA).