Clinical outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention for severely calcified lesions: comparison between the morphologies of severely calcified coronary lesions

Existing studies evaluating the comparison of clinical outcome of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for severe calcified coronary lesions are limited, and the clinical outcomes of PCI for different morphologies of calcified lesions are controversial. Overall, consecutive 576 lesions with severe calcification that were treated with PCI from 2010 to 2021 at Nagoya Heart Center were investigated. All lesions were assessed using invasive coronary angiogram (CAG) or computed tomography-CAG at 12 months after DES implantation. We divided the patients into three groups based on the results of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging (concentric calcified lesion [CC] n = 273, eccentric calcified lesion [EC] n = 217, calcified nodule [CN] n = 86). The clinical and angiographic outcomes of each group were investigated retrospectively to compare the prognosis between the three groups and identify predictive factors for the device-oriented composite end points (DoCE). There were no differences in patient characteristics among the three groups, except that there were significantly more patients on dialysis in the CN group. The incidence of DoCE was significantly higher in the CN group than in the other groups (CC; 18.3% vs. EC; 23.5% vs. CN; 36.0%; Log-Rank test; p = 0.001). Cox regression analysis showed that the independent predictors of DoCE were CN, insulin use, hemodialysis, right coronary artery lesions, and calcium cracks. The incidence of DoCE was significantly higher in the CN group. Calcium cracks are crucial for improving outcomes in severely calcified lesions, being key predictors of DoCE.