Local paclitaxel induces late lumen enlargement in coronary arteries after balloon angioplasty

Background This study investigated p aclitaxel-induced luminal changes following drug-coated balloon (DCB) angioplasty to treat coronary de novo lesions without additional stenting. DCB-mediated local drug delivery reduces late lumen loss in de novo coronary artery lesions. We performed a retrospective clinical assessment based on a pre-specified quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) protocol. Methods QCA was performed for each centre to assess the primary endpoint late lumen changes, i.e. the difference between in-lesion minimal lumen diameter (MLD) at the routine angiographic follow-up as compared to post-procedural in-lesion MLDs. These MLD changes were compared to corresponding reference vessel diameter changes as an intra-patient control. Results We evaluated 58 consecutive native coronary artery lesions directly after DCB angioplasty and at a routine target follow-up angiography of 4 months by QCA. Target lesion MLD increased significantly within the 4.1 ± 2.1 month observation period (1.75 ± 0.55 vs. 1.91 ± 0.55 mm, p