Background: To prevent ischemic complications during carotid artery stenting, accurate detection of plaque protrusion and appropriate additional treatment are essential. Here, we introduce a novel method for the detection of plaque protrusion under distal balloon protection using three-dimensional rotation angiography-"retrograde 3DRA." We evaluated the safety and efficacy of this method.
Materials and methods: We retrospectively analyzed 28 consecutive carotid artery stenting procedures under distal balloon protection at our hospital between July 2017 and August 2019. The first line of protection was dual balloon protection (proximal and distal balloon). After stent deployment, balloon dilatation, and subsequent blood aspiration, 3DRA was performed with the injection of diluted contrast medium from the aspiration catheter positioned just proximal to the distal protection balloon. The stent lumen was analyzed by obtaining the reconstruction maximum intensity projection image.
Results: Among the 28 cases, all cases could be assessed for in-stent plaque protrusion using "retrograde 3DRA." We were able to evaluate the stent lumen clearly. There were three cases (10.7%) in which plaque protrusion could be confirmed. Since additional balloon dilatation was performed for all protrusion cases under continuing balloon protection, no ischemic complications occurred.
Conclusion: Retrograde 3DRA could be safe and useful for the detection of plaque protrusions and to avoid ischemic complication for tolerable cases of internal carotid artery transient balloon protection.
Keywords: Plaque protrusion; carotid artery stenting; distal balloon protection; retrograde 3D rotational angiography.