Introduction: The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate the impact of different degrees of vessel barotrauma on the acute and 1-year clinical and angiographic outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and adjunctive vascular brachytherapy (VBT) with 90Sr/90Y for in-stent restenotic lesions (ISR) in 118 patients.
Methods and results: Sixty consecutive patients were treated according to an aggressive PCI strategy (group 1); fifty-eight were treated non-aggressively (group 2). Irradiation was performed with a manual afterloader. Clinical and angiographic baseline characteristics did not differ between groups. Group 1 yielded a higher acute lumen gain (2.3 +/- 1.2 mm versus 1.7 +/- 1.3 mm; p=0.005) and a higher prevalence of additional stent implantation (48.3% versus 22.4%; p=0.003). At follow-up, net gain (1.8 +/- 0.7 mm versus 1.4 +/- 0.8 mm; p=0.102) was equalized by a higher late loss in group 1 (0.6 +/- 0.8 mm versus 0.3 +/- 0.7 mm; p=0.036). Remaining target vessel late loss, due to edge effects, was considerably higher in group 1 than in group 2 (0.5 +/- 0.8 mm versus 0.2 +/- 0.5 mm; p<0.001), leading to a higher rate of binary angiographic restenosis (23.3% versus 6.9%; p=0.013) and target vessel revascularization (16.7% versus 5.2%; p=0.046). After excluding patients who received additional stents, the angiographic differences between groups were attenuated.
Conclusion: Our study does not support the use of oversized balloons and high inflation pressures for the treatment of ISR when combined with VBT. Additional stent implantation combined with VBT carries a high risk of repeat revascularization in the setting of ISR and should be avoided.