Plaque morphological changes after drug-coated balloon angioplasty according to underlying plaque components

A 52-year-old man with a short chronic total occlusion in the left superficial femoral artery underwent drug-coated balloon (DCB) angioplasty. Evaluation using integrated backscatter intravascular ultrasound revealed that the plaque volume of fibrosis was compressed just after treatment (from 494.67 mm³ to 398.36 mm³) and was further decreased at 1 month after treatment (to 362.07 mm³). The plaque volume of the lipid pool was not changed at follow-up compared with that just after DCB dilation. These integrated backscatter intravascular ultrasound findings suggest that the effect of DCB angioplasty may differ depending on the type of underlying plaque components.