Intravascular Ultrasound–Derived Calcium Score to Predict Stent Expansion in Severely Calcified Lesions

Authors: Mingyou Zhang, Mitsuaki Matsumura, Eisuke Usui, Masahiko Noguchi, Tatsuhiro Fujimura, Khady Fall, Zixuan Zhang, Tamim Nazif, Sahil A. Parikh, LeRoy E. Rabbani, Ajay J. Kirtane, Michael Collins, Martin B. Leon, Jeffrey W. Moses, Dimitri Karmpaliotis, Ziad A. Ali, Gary S. Mintz, Akiko Maehara - Circulation Cardiovascular Interventions 2021 cited by 171

Background: Coronary calcification inhibits stent expansion. We sought to establish an intravascular ultrasound–derived calcium score to predict stent underexpansion. Methods: This is a retrospective observational study including de novo lesions that underwent intravascular ultrasound–guided stenting and had maximum superficial calcium angle >270°. Lesions with angiographic calcium not treated with atherectomy or scoring/cutting balloon before stent implantation were randomly divided into derivation and validation cohorts. The end point was stent expansion (minimum stent area/average of reference lumen area) at the maximum calcium site, and stent expansion <70% was considered underexpansion. Results: The morphological characteristics associated with stent underexpansion in derivation cohort were (1) superficial calcium angle >270° longer than 5 mm (regression coefficient, −13.0 [95% CI, −18.1 to −7.8], P <0.0001), (2) 360° of superficial calcium (regression coefficient, −14.2 [95% CI, −22.8 to −5.5], P =0.001), (3) calcified nodule (regression coefficient, −8.3 [95% CI, −14.3 to −2.2], P =0.007), and (4) vessel diameter <3.5 mm (regression coefficient, −9.4 [95% CI, −16.0 to −2.7], P =0.006). The calcium score (0-4) was significantly correlated with poor stent expansion (regression coefficient, −8.1 [95% CI, −10.5 to −5.7], P <0.0001) in the validation cohort as well as in the atherectomy cohort (regression coefficient, −4.8 [95% CI, −7.2 to −2.5], P <0.0001) with significant interaction between validation and atherectomy cohorts ( P interaction =0.02). In lesions without angiographic calcium, all calcium severity parameters were less than in the validation cohort, and stent underexpansion was observed in only 1.5% (1/67) of lesions. Conclusions: This intravascular ultrasound calcium score provides the interventionalists with a reliable tool to identify calcified stenoses at risk for stent underexpansion and requiring adjunctive calcium modification before stent implantation.