Arterial smooth muscle injury causes blood tissue factor elevation predicting restenosis after pci

The predictability of the whole-blood tissue factor levels for restenosis after coronary angioplasty is uncertain. We first probed in depth the association between plasma tissue factor concentrations and the development of restenosis after coronary intervention with an animal pathological model.

Thirty pigs were used and their coronary arteries were injured for the dilatation of balloons. Morphological measurements include neointimal area, injury score and the extent of area stenosis. Whole-blood tissue factor levels were measured before and after intervention. The circulating tissue factor levels increased significantly after intervention (baseline value, 328.54 ± 47.46 pg/ml; at 30th minute, 618.96 ± 119.08 pg/ml; at 24th hour, 639.34 ± 116.21 pg/ml) (p < 0.01), and the degrees of tissue factor changes correlated positively to the neointimal hyperplasty (r(30th min) = 0.751, r(24th hour) = 0.72, p < 0.01). There was no significant difference with the baseline whole blood tissue factor (TF) levels between restenotic and non-restenotic cases (330.83 ± 47.32 vs. 325.1 ± 49.57 pg/ml) (p > 0.05). The injury of media led to the most distinctive changes of blood tissue factor (p < 0.01).

Higher values of whole-blood tissue factor may be a predictor of restenosis, and the damaged media might be the main reason of the tissue factor increase.