Introduction: Coronary artery calcification can lead to suboptimal results when performing coronary angioplasty with conventional techniques. Shockwave intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) has recently been introduced as a new modality to treat heavily calcified coronary arteries. The purpose of this study was to determine the procedural success and safety of IVL in calcified lesions.
Materials and methods: This was a prospective single-centre study regarding the utility of IVL in treatment of calcified coronary arteries. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) was used in all cases to characterise the lesions pre procedure and to assess procedural success post procedure. The primary end point was procedural success, defined by IVL treatment and successful stent implantation. The secondary end point was in-hospital and 30-day major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE).
Results: Five patients with severely calcified lesions were successfully treated with IVL. The primary end point was achieved in all patients. All of the lesions were severely calcified with concentric calcium. Multiple calcium fractures were identified on IVUS after IVL in all cases. None of the patients suffered in-hospital or 30-day MACE. The average diameter stenosis at baseline was 1.8±0.4mm and the post PCI diameter stenosis was 2.9±0.1mm, with significant acute luminal gain of 1.2±0.3mm (p<0.01). There were no complications of coronary dissection, slow or no reflow, stent thrombosis, or vessel perforation.
Conclusion: Our initial experience demonstrates the feasibility and safety of IVL in the management of calcified coronary stenosis. The shockwave IVL is an effective treatment approach to disrupt coronary calcification, facilitating stent implantation with optimal results. It is a safe procedure with a good success rate and low rate of complications.