Late stent thrombosis after discontinuation of dual anti-platelet therapy in off-label use of paclitaxel-eluting stent visualized by optical coherence tomography—3-vessel OCT study

SummaryWe observed late stent thrombosis image by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in vessels with off-label paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES) implantation. A 59-year-old Japanese man was treated with a single on-label PES for chronic coronary artery disease in the left circumflex artery. After 9 months, he was implanted with two linked PESs in the left anterior descending artery (LAD) and a single PES in the right coronary artery (RCA). He was examined for suspicion of a colon tumor by fiberscope after discontinuation of dual anti-platelet therapy without consultation. He complained of chest pain and was transferred to our center. Emergency coronary angiography demonstrated thrombotic total occlusion of the proximal LAD in the two linked PESs. After thrombus aspiration therapy, OCT was performed to evaluate the stents in the 3 vessels. The off-label two linked PESs demonstrated the same average neo-intimal hyperplasia (NIH) thickness and percentage of uncovered stent struts compared with the on-label PES in the RCA by visualized OCT image. However, the heterogeneity of NIH in the LAD stent was significantly higher than the stents in the other two vessels. The implantation of the two linked off-label and the heterogeneity of NIH may increase hyperplatelet coagulability more than on-label single PES use.