Background: We sought to clarify the impact of final kissing inflation (FKI) after single stenting of bifurcation lesions on vessel healing.
Methods: From the J-REVERSE registry enrolling 303 bifurcation lesions treated with provisional single stenting using sirolimus- (SES) or everolimus-eluting stent (EES), 65 lesions treated with (n = 30) and without (n = 35) FKI underwent 9-month follow-up optical coherence tomography. Average stent eccentricity index (SEI: minimum/maximum stent diameter) and neointimal unevenness score (NUS: maximum/average neointimal thickness of the same cross-section) for the proximal, bifurcation, and distal segments were compared between FKI and non-FKI groups.
Results: At the proximal segment, the FKI group demonstrated significantly larger average stent area with greater asymmetric stent expansion, and average lumen area remained significantly larger at 9 month follow-up despite a tendency toward greater neointimal proliferation. Jailed strut and thrombus incidence were also significantly lower at the side branch orifice, and NUS was significantly smaller at the bifurcation and proximal segments in the FKI group.
Conclusions: Nine months after SES and EES treatment of bifurcation lesions, FKI reduced proximal segment luminal narrowing. Considering its homogeneous neointimal distribution and fewer jailed struts, FKI may be beneficial for treating bifurcation lesions. (C) 2016 Japanese College of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.