“Intracoronary Whirling Current Phenomenon” and Thrombus Formation After Sirolimus-Eluting Stent Implantation Visualized by Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

We present a case of imaged “intracoronary whirling current phenomenon.” A 60-year-old Japanese man was treated with 2 sirolimus-eluting stents (SES; 3.0×18 and 3.5×33 mm) in the right coronary artery (RCA) for chronic total occlusion in October 2007. After percutaneous coronary intervention, he was taking 200 mg of aspirin and 200 mg of ticlopidine. However, he had recurrent transient ischemic chest pain beginning at 7 months. A second coronary angiography at 8 months after SES implantation showed reocclusion at a site just proximal to the SES. A repeat percutaneous coronary intervention was performed for RCA chronic total occlusion (Figure 1). After crossing the guide wire to the distal portion of the RCA, the target lesion was dilated using a 1.25×10 mm balloon catheter. After minimum balloon dilatation, optical coherence tomography (OCT) was performed to evaluate in-stent reocclusion from the distal portion to the proximal portion (Figure 2). Two different types of tissue coverage (may be consistent with thrombus formations of different ages) were observed in the stent reocclusion.1 Moreover, in the patent distal portion of the RCA, an intracoronary whirling current …