Ultrasound-guided vs angiography-guided coronary stent implantation

Editor's Note

In patients requiring long coronary stents, the use of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided vs angiography-guided drug-eluting stent implantation resulted in a significantly lower rate (2.9% absolute reduction, 48% relative reduction) of major adverse cardiac events at 1 year, finds this study.

These differences were mainly driven by the reduction of target lesion revascularization in the IVUS-guided group.

The clinical benefit of IVUS-guided stent implantation may be attributed to the larger lumen diameter followed by more frequent postdilation with a large-sized balloon, the authors say.

1Department of Internal Medicine, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Inje University, Seoul, Korea 2Division of Cardiology, Severance Cardiovascular Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea 3Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea 4Dankook University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Korea 5Gil Hospital, Gachon University College of Medicine, Incheon, Korea 6School of Medicine, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Korea 7Keimyung University College of Medicine, Daegu, Korea 8Kangnam Severance Hospital, Seoul, Korea 9Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea 10 Cardiovascular Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea