Correlation between quantitative angiographic and intravascular ultrasound parameters in patients treated with...

Despite the undeniable contribution of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) to assess drug-eluting stent (DES) effectiveness, the way these image modalities correlate to each other and to target-lesion revascularization (TLR) after PCI, is yet to be established. Thus we sought to evaluate whether there is an acceptable correlation between QCA and IVUS after DES implantation. We analyzed 204 pts treated with DES: Zotarolimus- (126), Sirolimus- (57), and Biolimus (31) with baseline and follow-up QCA and IVUS. The correlation between QCA lumen loss (LL) and intimal hyperplasia (IH) volume obstruction by IVUS was assessed by multiple regression analysis. Two QCA parameters (in-segment diameter stenosis and in-segment LL) and one IVUS variable (in-stent volume of IH) were evaluated as quantitative surrogates of 6 month TLR. The receiver operating characteristic method with c-statistics was used to assess the ability of each surrogate endpoint to predict TLR. QCA LL correlated positively with IVUS IH volume of obstruction (r = 0.69; CI95% 0.61-0.75: P < 0.0001), independent of DES type. The 2 QCA parameters were superior to the IVUS parameter as surrogates for TLR. Of note, QCA LL (c = 0.99) correlated best with TLR, even better than percent DS. In the DES era there is a good correlation between QCA measured LL and IVUS IH volume and therefore can be used as a surrogate of DES efficacy.