The Residual Lipid-Rich Coronary Atheroma Behind the Implanted Newer-Generation Drug-Eluting Stent and Future Stent-Related Event Risks

Background: Lipid-rich plaque is an important substrate that causes future coronary events. However, the clinical implications of underlying plaque characteristics in coronary lesions after newer-generation drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation remain unknown.

Methods: The current study analyzed 445 target lesions after newer-generation DES implantation in 416 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) (chronic coronary syndrome/acute coronary syndrome = 264/181) from the REASSURE-NIRS multicentre registry. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging was used to evaluate maximum lipid core burden index after stent implantation in target lesions (residual maxLCBI_4mm). The primary and secondary outcomes were 3-year lesion-oriented clinical outcomes (LOCO): cardiac death, nonfatal target-lesion-related myocardial infarction (MI), or ischemia-driven target-lesion revascularization (ID-TLR) and patient-oriented clinical outcomes (POCO): all-cause death, nonfatal MI, or ID unplanned revascularization. Outcomes were compared by residual maxLCBI_4mm tertile.

Results: Median residual maxLCBI_4mm was 183; 16% of lesions had residual maxLCBI_4mm > 400. Higher residual maxLCBI_4mm was not associated with a greater likelihood of LOCO or POCO during the observational period (LOCO, log-rank P = 0.76; POCO, log-rank P = 0.84). Mixed-effects logistic regression demonstrated that residual maxLCBI_4mm does not predict LOCO (odds ratio [OR], 1.000; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.997-1.003; P = 0.95). There was no significant relationship between residual maxLCBI_4mm and POCO (OR, 1.001; 95% CI, 0.999-1.002; P = 0.30).

Conclusions: Residual maxLCBI_4mm is not associated with LOCO or POCO in patients with CAD after newer-generation DES implantation. Our findings suggest that NIRS-derived underlying lipid-rich plaque is not associated with the risk of stent-related events and patient-based outcomes in patients with CAD who have received newer-generation DESs.