Background: Patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) are at substantial risk of suboptimal procedural results and late adverse events. Angiography and optical coherence tomography (OCT) studies have identified residual coronary thrombus and microcirculatory injury as potential culprits for these adverse outcomes. We hypothesized that coronary thrombectomy and local infusion of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors by means of a dedicated infusion device can synergistically improve results of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for STEMI, as appraised by OCT. Methods: A total of 128 patients with STEMI will be randomized, to one of the following: abciximab infusion with the ClearWay coronary catheter (C ...

Aims We aimed to compare coronary artery disease (CAD) at the time of a first acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in type II diabetic and non-diabetic patients by coronary angiography and by optical coherence tomography (OCT). Methods and results Two different patient populations with a first ACS were enrolled for the angiographic (167 patients) and the OCT (72 patients) substudy. Angiographic CAD severity was assessed by Bogaty, Gensini, and Sullivan scores, whereas collateral development towards the culprit vessel was assessed by the Rentrop score. Optical coherence tomography plaque features were evaluated at the site of the minimum lumen area (MLA) and ...

The persistence of thrombus inside stent struts is a frequent event in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and this phenomenon might be associated with an increased risk of stent thrombosis. We sought to quantify by means of optical coherence tomography (OCT) the presence of in-stent thrombus after achievement of an optimal angiographic result in patients with ACS undergoing PCI. In addition, we evaluated the feasibility and safety of an OCT-guided strategy of in-stent thrombus removal. Eighty consecutive patients with ACS undergoing PCI were treated with two different strategies equally divided into two groups: angio-guided ...

Postprocedural myocardial infarction is an ominous complication of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Despite several patient, lesion, and procedural factors that may affect its occurrence and severity, it is unclear if implanting a stent edge on a coronary lipid pool, as appraised by optical coherence tomography (OCT), adversely affects outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess the association between postprocedural myocardial infarction and the implantation of a stent edge on a lipid pool, as assessed by OCT. A database was screened for patients without ongoing myocardial infarctions; who underwent PCI with stenting for single, native, de novo lesions; without ...

Aims: Angiographic guidance for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has substantial limitations. The superior spatial resolution of optical coherence tomography (OCT) could translate into meaningful clinical benefits. We aimed to compare angiographic guidance alone versus angiographic plus OCT guidance for PCI. Methods and results: Patients undergoing PCI with angiographic plus OCT guidance (OCT group) were compared with matched patients undergoing PCI with angiographic only guidance (Angio group) within 30 days. The primary endpoint was the one-year rate of cardiac death or myocardial infarction (MI). A total of 670 patients were included, 335 in the OCT group and 335 in the Angio ...

Intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH) is an important co-factor for plaque progression and rupture. So far noninvasive MRI has shown promise for the in-vivo identification of IPH and for the prediction of plaque instability. Intravascular imaging techniques such as intravascular ultrasound or optical coherence tomography (OCT) cannot distinguish between IPH and other plaque components. However, OCT has the unique ability to identify microvessels located in the lipid core of atherosclerotic plaque due to its high resolution (around 20 μm). Microvessels are known to be the main source of blood extravasation due to their anatomically compromised structure. Coronary plaques with a high microvessel ...

The aim of this study is to describe a new method for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of coronary arteries using Frequency Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (FD-OCT) images. The rationale is to fuse the information about the curvature of the artery, derived from biplane angiographies, with the information regarding the lumen wall, which is produced from the FD-OCT examination. The method is based on a three step approach. In the first step the lumen borders in FD-OCT images are detected. In the second step a 3D curve is produced using the center line of the vessel from the two biplane projections. Finally ...