Background The addition of highly purified eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) to statin therapy prevents cardiovascular events. However, the impact of this treatment on vulnerable plaques remains unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of adding EPA to a standard statin therapy on vulnerable plaques by serial optical coherence tomography (OCT). Methods Forty-nine non-culprit thin-cap fibroatheroma (TCFA) lesions in 30 patients with untreated dyslipidemia were included. Patients were randomly assigned to EPA (1800 mg/day) + statin (23 TCFA, 15 patients) or statin only (26 TCFA, 15 patients) treatment. The statin (rosuvastatin) dose was adjusted to achieve a target ...

Background Although drug-eluting stents have significantly reduced the mid-term incidence of target lesion revascularization, however, in vivo studies on long-term vessel healing of sirolimus-eluting and paclitaxel-eluting stents (SES and PES) are limited. So the aim of this study was to compare long-term arterial healing in SES and PES. Methods We evaluated 27 SES (23 patients) and 21 PES (20 patients) by serial optical coherence tomography (OCT) at 6 months (mid-phase) and ≥3 years (late-phase) after stenting and evaluated the change of neointimal thickness (NIT), the percentages of uncovered and malapposed struts, peri-strut low intensity area (region around stent struts homogenously ...

To treat patients with stable coronary artery disease, elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) will be performed with the use of an everolimus-eluting cobalt- chromium stent (everolimus-eluting stent: EES, Xience Prime, Xpedition), which is the current standard drug-eluting stent (DES). Vascular responses at the site of stent placement will be evaluated by optical coherence tomography (OCT) at 1 or 3 months and at 12 months after stent placement, along with observation of changes over time in the target vessel. The relationships between OCT findings and the time course of platelet aggregation and between OCT findings and the occurrence of major cardio- ...

Background:  Although both optical coherence tomography (OCT) and angioscopy are robust tools for detecting intrastent thrombi and neoatherosclerosis in vivo, whether OCT findings are comparable with angioscopy findings remains unclear. Methods and Results:  22 patients presenting with de novo lesions underwent 26 sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) implantations, with follow-up OCT and angioscopy at 10 months post-implantation for segmental assessment of the proximal, mid-, and distal SES segments (66 segments). The mean signal intensity index (signal intensity of the neointima/signal intensity of fibrous intimal hyperplasia) was quantified for angioscopically detected in-stent yellow and white segments. The detection rate for red thrombi ...

Background Delayed healing, such as persistent inflammation and fibrin deposition, and vascular dysfunction after drug-eluting stent has been reported. Histological validation of coronary optical coherence tomography (OCT) morphology has not yet been done. Methods Sirolimus eluting stents (SES, n = 8) and bare metal stents (BMS n = 8) were implanted in pig coronary arteries. One month after implantation, an acetylcholine challenge test and OCT were performed. The OCT texture pattern of the neointima was classified into one of the three categories; Layered type, Homo type, and Hetero type. Hearts were harvested for histopathological scoring of inflammation and intramural thrombus. Results Inflammation ...

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the differences of wall shear stress distribution among different types of drug-eluting stents and its impact on vessel healing evaluated by intravascular optical coherence tomography evaluation.

Purpose: To compare the relationships of parapapillary retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness among three spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) instruments with visual field sensitivity (VFS). Methods: One hundred and thirteen eyes of 113 Japanese subjects with glaucoma (mean deviation in standard automated perimetry = −8.9 ± 6.7 dB) were imaged by Cirrus, RTVue and 3D OCT. The average hemi-superior and hemi-inferior RNFL thicknesses were obtained. In addition, the structure–function relationship using two retinotopic maps that consisted of six or nine sectors was also evaluated. Decibel (dB) scale and 1/Lamert (1/L) were used to express VFS. RNFL ...

Background:  Treatment of coronary bifurcation lesions using a single stenting strategy is preferable over that using a 2-stent technique. The benefit of final kissing inflation (FKI), however, has not been established. Methods and Results:  Seventy-two patients (76 lesions) with true bifurcation lesions treated with a single drug-eluting stent with FKI (n=33 lesions) or without FKI (non-FKI, n=43 lesions) were enrolled in this study. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was performed at 6–12 months after implantation. Based on the OCT findings, the percentage of jailing struts (number of jailing struts/total number of struts at the bifurcation lesion) was ...

We hypothesized that the tissue components of in-stent restenosis (ISR) might differ between drug-eluting stents (DES) and bare-metal stents (BMS) and that these differences could be distinguished by qualitative and quantitative optical coherence tomography (OCT) analyses. Methods and Results:  One-hundred and twenty-two initial ISR lesions (sirolimus-eluting stents: n=28; paclitaxel-eluting stents: n=51; BMS: n=43) were evaluated with OCT. Based on their OCT appearance, the lesions were classified as homogeneous, layered or heterogeneous. The optical properties of backscatter, attenuation and signal intensity of the neointimal tissue (NIT) were quantified. To evaluate the vascular response after balloon angioplasty (BA), the ...

Background The difference of arterial healing response following everolimus-eluting stent (EES) or sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) implantation in patients with ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) has not been compared in detail. Methods Thirty-five patients with STEMI were randomly implanted with an EES or SES (23 EES, 12 SES). At seven months, neointimal thickness (NIT) and strut malapposition were evaluated by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and the grade and heterogeneity of neointimal coverage (NIC) and development of intra-stent thrombi were evaluated by angioscopy. Results No significant differences were noted in clinical events experienced by the two groups, although one patient with an ...