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Elimination of a permanent metallic stent from standard PCI techniques is desirable, since mid- and long-term adverse reactions may be triggered by an intracoronary foreign body. Aim: To investigate two „metal-free" PCI techniques using either drug-coated balloons (DCB) or bioresorbable scaffolds

Introduction: The feasibility of fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided angioplasty using paclitaxel-coated balloons without stent implantation (DCB-only PCI) has been investigated in the OCTOPUS-2 trial (NCT02120859). According to the study protocol, dissections classified as NHLBI types A and B were not stented, if FFR > 0.8 and residual stenosis Hypothesis: We evaluated the extent of residual dissections using the optical coherence tomography (OCT) recordings obtained at 6-month follow-up (f/u). Methods: A number of 41 pt with 45 lesions were successfully treated by FFR-guided DCB-only PCI and underwent 6-month angiographic and OCT f/u. OCT analysis included manual tracing of dissections and plaques, which were entered into a dedicated software program. The algorithm enabled beyond the spread-out vessel reconstruction ("carpet view" of inner vessel surface: Fig. 1) also the computation of volume, luminal surface area and length of dissections and plaques. Results: As shown in Table 1, no correlation was found between angiography and OCT at f/u regarding the presence or the extension of dissections. Angiographic dissection type, vessel diameter, lesion length, plaque burden or balloon to artery ratio were not predictive for the presence of dissection at OCT f/u. Conclusions: Clinically silent residual dissections after balloon angioplasty are largely misdiagnosed by angiography. Intracoronary imaging and FFR proved useful to guide the procedure and avoid unnecessary stenting. OCT using this novel algorithm for spread-out vessel reconstruction enables a comprehensive quantitative analysis of coronary artery dissections and plaque burden.

We aimed to implement (1) a standardized, computational algorithm to analyze all coronary plaques in an OCT pullback, and to introduce (2) a novel parameter - luminal plaque surface area - as a better description of plaque burden. Plaque assessment consisted of: (a) plaque count of each subtype

Previously, we demonstrated superior suppression of neointimal proliferation of ciglitazone- eluting stents (CES) in comparison to sirolimus- and everolimus-eluting stents and bare metal stents (BMS) in rabbits. We aimed to investigate endothelial coverage of the novel CES. Non-polymeric CES were

Safety concerns regarding use of drug eluting coronary stents are related to late stent thrombosis, which is facilitated by incomplete endothelial stent coverage. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is the new gold standard for intravascular imaging, enabling precise assessment of neointimal

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows precise evaluation of coronary structures. There is limited knowledge whether plaque burden plays a role in coronary healing response, or is susceptible to antiproliferative drugs or stents after PCI. We aimed to implement a 3-dimensional OCT algorithm to