Association of morphologic characteristics on optical coherence tomography and angiographic progression patterns of late restenosis after drug-eluting stent implantation

Abstract Objectives To gain insight into the pathophysiology of late drug-eluting stent (DES) restenosis. Background Restenosis of DES has a different time course from that of bare metal stents. Methods Patients who underwent follow-up coronary angiography (CAG) twice (six to nine months and 18 to 24 months) after DES implantation were examined using optical coherence tomography (OCT). All lesions with target lesion revascularization at first follow-up were excluded. Late catch-up was defined as lesions that progressed from less than 50% diameter stenosis (DS) at the first CAG to more than 50% DS at the second CAG. Lesions with the late catch-up were further divided into two groups; lesions with jump-up (less than 25% DS at the first CAG) and lesions with gradual progression (25–50% DS at the first CAG). Results Of the 25 patients who had late ISR, 23 patients (10 jump-up/13 gradual progression) were examined with OCT at late follow-up and enrolled in this study. In the qualitative OCT assessment, each ratio of homogeneous, layered, heterogeneous with or without attenuation tissue morphologies were in jump-up group, and gradual progression group were 0% and 15%, 0% and 23%, and 60% and 8%, and 40% and 54%, respectively. All of jump-up group showed heterogeneous restenotic tissue, while 62% of gradual progression group showed heterogeneous restenotic tissue ( P = .04). Conclusions These findings suggest different pathophysiology of the late catch-up after DES implantation between the jump-up and gradual progression groups.