Serial 5-year evaluation of side branches jailed by bioresorbable vascular scaffolds using 3-dimensional optical coherence tomography insights from the ABSORB Cohort B Trial (A clinical evaluation of the bioabsorbable everolimus eluting coronary stent system in the treatment of patients with de novo native coronary artery lesions)

Background: The long-term fate of Absorb bioresorbable vascular scaffold (Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, CA) struts jailing side branch ostia has not been clarified. We therefore evaluate serially (post-procedure and at 6 months, 1, 2, 3, and 5 years) the appearance and fate of jailed Absorb bioresorbable vascular scaffold struts. Methods and Results: We performed 3-dimensional optical coherence tomographic analysis of the ABSORB Cohort B trial (A Clinical Evaluation of the Bioabsorbable Everolimus Eluting Coronary Stent System in the Treatment of Patients With De Novo Native Coronary Artery Lesions) up to 5 years using a novel, validated cut-plane analysis method. We included 29 patients with a total of 85 side branch ostia. From the 12 ostia which could be assessed in true serial fashion, 7 showed a pattern of initial decrease in the ostial area free from struts, followed by an increase in strut-free ostial area toward the end of the 5 years of follow-up. In a repeated-measures analysis with time as fixed variable and ostial area free from struts as dependent variable, we showed a numeric decrease in the estimated ostial area free from struts from 0.75 mm² (baseline) to 0.68 mm² (first follow-up visit at 6 months or 1 year) and 0.63 mm² (second follow-up visit at 2 or 3 years). However, from the second visit to the 5-year follow-up visit, there was a statistically significant increase from 0.63 to 0.89 mm² (P=0.001). Struts overlying an ostium divided the ostium into compartments, and the number of these compartments decreased over time. Conclusions: This study showed that in most cases, the side branch ostial area free from struts initially decreased. However, with full scaffold bioresorption, the ostial area free from scaffold increased between 2 to 3 years and 5 years in the vast majority of patients.