Impact of coronary plaque morphology assessed by optical coherence tomography on cardiac troponin elevation in patients with elective stent implantation.

BACKGROUND Mild elevations of cardiac troponin frequently occur after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and patients with elevated post-PCI biomarkers have a worse prognosis. We used optical coherence tomography (OCT) to study the relationship between pre-PCI plaque morphology and post-PCI cardiac troponin I elevations. METHODS AND RESULTS One hundred thirty-one patients with normal pre-PCI cardiac troponin I levels underwent OCT before nonemergency stent implantation. Clinical and OCT findings were compared between patients with (n=31, 23.7%) and without (n=100, 76.3%) post-PCI cardiac troponin I of >3 × upper reference limit (post-PCI myocardial infarction [MI]). After PCI, long-term follow-up data were collected. Post-PCI MI was associated with angiographic lesion length, type B2/C lesions, presence of thin-cap fibroatheroma, and fibrous cap thickness. In multivariable analysis, presence of thin-cap fibroatheroma (odds ratio, 10.47; 95% confidence interval, 3.74 to 29.28; P<0.001) and type B2/C lesions (odds ratio, 3.74; 95% confidence interval, 1.41 to 9.92; P=0.008) were predictors of post-PCI MI. At a median follow-up of 12 months, cardiac event-free survival was significantly worse in patients with post-PCI MI (log-rank test χ(2)=8.9; P=0.003). Cox proportional hazards analysis showed that post-PCI MI (hazard ratio, 3.67; 95% confidence interval, 1.39 to 9.65; P=0.009) and ejection fraction (hazard ratio, 0.96; 95% confidence interval, 0.92 to 0.99; P=0.029) were independent predictors of adverse cardiovascular events during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Type B2/C lesions and the presence of OCT-defined thin-cap fibroatheroma can predict post-PCI MI in patients treated with elective stent implantation, who may require adjunctive therapy after otherwise successful PCI.