Impact of lesion morphology on stent elongation during bifurcation PCI: an in vivo OCT study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recent observations in silico and in vivo reported that, during proximal optimisation technique, drug-eluting stents (DES) elongate, challenging conventional wisdom. The interaction between plaque morphology and radial expansion is well established, but little is known about the impact of plaque morphology on elongation.

AIMS: We aimed to assess the longitudinal mechanical behaviour of contemporary DES in vivo and evaluate the relationship between post-percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) stent elongation and lesion morphology, as assessed with optical coherence tomography (OCT).

METHODS: Patients treated with OCT-guided PCI to left main or left anterior descending artery bifurcations, between July 2017 and March 2022, from the King’s Optical coherence Database Analysis Compendium were included. Patients were excluded if there were overlapping stents, if they had undergone prior PCI, or if there was inadequate image quality. Lesions were characterised as fibrocalcific, fibrous or lipid-rich by pre-PCI OCT. Following stent post-dilatation, stent expansion and final stent length were assessed. The primary outcome was the percentage change in stent length from baseline.

RESULTS: Of 501 eligible consecutive patients from this period, 116 were included. The...