Optical coherence tomography assessment of a new dedicated bifurcation stent.

AIMS

Dedicated bifurcation stents should facilitate deployment and improve coverage of bifurcational lesions. We used optical coherence tomography (OCT) to assess bifurcation lesions treated with a dedicated stent implanted in the side branch (SB) in conjunction with drug eluting stents in the main vessel (MV) in a culotte-like fashion.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Nine patients treated with the Tryton stent underwent postprocedural OCT examination. Total percent of malapposed struts per patient was 18.1+/-8.7%. The longitudinal distribution of the percent of malapposed struts per patient showed that the prevalence of malapposed struts was significantly higher at the level of the bifurcation (33.3%), than in both the proximal segment and the distal segment (18.5% and 9.8%, respectively, p=0.011). When the bifurcation was divided into two halves (opposite SB and toward SB), the highest percent of malapposed struts was toward the SB (47.6%). Also the wall-strut distance for malapposed struts was significantly higher in the bifurcation half toward the SB than in the proximal and the distal segment.

CONCLUSIONS

Malapposed struts are frequent in bifurcations despite the use of a dedicated stent. The highest frequency and largest vessel wall-stent strut distance are observed in the bifurcation half toward the SB.