title: Procedural and one-year clinical outcomes of bioresorbable vascular scaffolds for the treatment of chronic total occlusions: a single-centre experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The bioresorbable vascular scaffold system (BVS) is the latest fully absorbable vascular therapy system that is used to treat coronary artery disease. The BVS has been used in different coronary lesion subsets, such as acute thrombotic lesions, bifurcation lesions, ostial lesions and lesions originating from bypass grafts. However, data about the use of BVS in chronic total occlusions (CTO) are limited. We report our BVS experience for the treatment of CTOs in terms of procedural features and one-year clinical follow-up results.
  
  
  METHODS
  An analysis was made of 41 consecutive patients with CTO lesions who were referred to our clinic between January 2013 and December 2014. A total of 52 BVS were implanted. An analysis was made of patient characteristics, procedural features [target vessel, BVS diameter, BVS length, post-dilatation rate, type of post-dilatation balloon, procedure time, fluoroscopy time, contrast volume, postprocedure reference vessel diameter (RVD), post-procedure minimal lesion diameter (MLD), type of CTO technique and rate of microcatheter use] and one-year clinical follow-up results [death, myocardial infarction, angina, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), target-lesion revascularisation (TLR) and target-vessel revascularisation (TVR)]. Descriptive and frequency statistics were used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the patient group was 61.9 ± 9.7 years, 85.4% were male, and 51.2% had diabetes. Prior myocardial infarction incidence was 65.9%, 56.1% of the patients had percutaneous coronary intervention and 17.1% had a previous history of CABG. The procedure was performed via the radial route in 24.3% of the patients. The target vessel was the right coronary artery in 48.7% of the patients. Post-dilatation was performed on the implanted BVS in 97.5% of the patients, mainly by non-compliant balloon; 87.8% of the BVS were implanted by the antegrade CTO technique. Mean procedure time was 92 ± 35.6 minutes. Mean contrast volume was 146.6 ± 26.7 ml. At one year, there were no deaths. One patient had lesionrelated myocardial infarction and needed revascularisation because of early cessation of dual anti-platelet therapy. Eleven patients had angina and five of them needed target-vessel revascularisation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  BVS implantation appeared to be effective and safe in CTO lesions but randomised studies with a larger number of patients and with longer follow-up times are needed.
authors.affiliation: Cardiology Department, Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. Email: erdem.ozel@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Erdem
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Özel
authors.affiliation: Cardiology Department, Sifa University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taştan
authors.affiliation: Cardiology Department, Sifa University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Öztürk
authors.affiliation: Cardiology Department, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Emin Evren
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Özcan
authors.affiliation: Cardiology Department, Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Baris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kilicaslan
authors.affiliation: Cardiology Department, Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Öner
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Özdogan
mesh_terms: D020341:Absorbable Implants; D000368:Aged; D000787:Angina Pectoris / Q000209:etiology; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D054059:Coronary Occlusion / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000209:etiology; D010975:Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014421:Turkey
chemical_list: D010975:Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors