Predictors of inappropriately rapid coronary lesion progression in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions

• Published in: CJC open (Online) 2023-10, Vol.5 (10), p.739-744
• Main Authors: Sella, Gal, Tuvali, Ortal, Welt, Michael, Volodarsky, Igor, Jaber, Mustafa, Khadija, Haitham Abu, Koren, David, Haberman, Dan, Poles, Lion, Blatt, Alex, Jonas, Michael, Kracoff, Oscar H., Gandelman, Gera, George, Jacob
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Original
• ISSN: 2589-790X; 2589-790X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cjco.2023.07.002

Patients undergoing PCI may experience rapid atherosclerotic plaque progression in the non-treated vessels, that is unlikely to result from natural de novo atherosclerosis. We hypothesize that intra-lesion bleeding plays a central role in this process. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that may contribute to accelerated narrowing in coronary diameter. We reviewed 65 interventional procedures and their consequent staged PCIs and mapped the coronary tree into 16 segments (as divided by the AHA), grading the percentage of stenosis in each segment and spotting the rapidly progressing lesions. Demographic, procedural and laboratory data was recorded and analyzed. For the lesions which progressed rapidly in the time period between angiographies, the administration of eptifibatide intra-procedurally was associated with rapid progression of coronary lesions. Moreover, an increased WBC count prior to the index procedure was also associated with a trend towards rapid plaque progression. In this hypothesis generating study, treatment with a IIb/IIIa inhibitor in the index PCI was associated with an accelerated short-term progression of some of the non-treated lesions, suggesting that this mode of anti-aggregation therapy could facilitate plaque hemorrhage and consequent acceleration of coronary atherosclerosis in eroded plaques.