Relationship between yellow plaque grade and tissue protrusion after stent implantation: A coronary angioscopy study

Background Tissue protrusion detected with optical coherence tomography after percutaneous coronary intervention using stents is one of the risk factors for early stent thrombosis. However, tissue protrusion features have not been described. The aim of this study was to compare tissue morphology at stented sites with or without tissue protrusion by using coronary angioscopy. Methods Using optical coherence tomography and coronary angioscopy, we assessed 42 patients [31 men, 11 women; age, 70.7 ± 7.4 years; acute coronary syndrome (ACS), n = 19; effort angina pectoris (EAP), n = 23] after stenting. Results Twenty patients had tissue protrusion. ACS patients had a higher incidence of tissue protrusion than EAP patients (70.0% vs 29.4%; p = 0.002). The plaque at the protrusion site had higher-grade yellow plaque with thrombus than those without protrusion (2.35 ± 0.67 vs 1.40 ± 0.67; p