Coronary artery calcification is increasingly prevalent in our patient population. It significantly limits the procedural success of percutaneous coronary intervention and is associated with a higher risk of adverse cardiovascular events both in the short-term and long-term.
1. Introduction
The prevalence of moderate to severe calcification in coronary lesions being treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is between 18 to 24%, according to recent meta-analyses and multiethnic registries
[1][2][3]. Advanced age, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, smoking, and chronic kidney disease are associated with coronary calcification
[4]. Due to increasing age and comorbidities of patients undergoing PCI, the prevalence of severely calcified coronary lesions is increasing
[5]. Severe coronary calcification is independently associated with increased major adverse cardiac events following PCI
[2][5]. In addition to long-term adverse outcomes, treatment of calcified coronary lesions also poses significant technical challenges. It is associated with an increased likelihood of procedural failure (such as balloon uncrossability or stent under-expansion), complications (such as coronary dissection, coronary perforation, or balloon rupture), and periprocedural mortality and morbidity
[5][6]. The periprocedural assessment of the extent and thickness of coronary calcium is critical for calcium modification planning
[7][8]. There are many technologies available to modify severely calcified plaques, such as non-compliant (NC) balloons, rotational, orbital and laser atherectomy, and intravascular lithotripsy (IVL)
[9]. Each of these modalities of calcium modification has advantages and disadvantages. The contemporary algorithm for treating severely calcified lesions with a preference for one device over the other is changing, especially with the advent of IVL. The selected relevant clinical trials that support their clinical use, as depicted in
Table 1.
Table 1. Relevant clinical trials for the treatment of coronary calcification.
Several imaging modalities can identify and characterize calcified coronary lesions, including coronary angiography, coronary CT angiography, and intravascular imaging
[33]. Coronary CT angiography has emerged as a useful non-invasive tool to identify coronary calcium and plan coronary interventions. Measurement of coronary artery calcium score can be used to stratify cardiovascular risk as it is a powerful predictor of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease
[5]. Coronary angiography generally demonstrates severely calcified lesions as radiopacities without cardiac motion before contrast injection, frequently visible on both sides of the arterial lumen (tram-track). Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) enables full-thickness visualization of the coronary artery wall, allowing a detailed evaluation of calcified lesions and deposits within deeper layers of the coronary artery wall. Calcium appears as a bright, hyperechoic arch with acoustic shadowing. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) uses infrared light to create even higher resolution images, with a particular advantage in accurate visualization of calcium thickness. Calcium appears as low-intensity signal areas with well-delineated borders.
The 2021 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association/Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (ACC/AHA/SCAI) guidelines recommend using intracoronary imaging for procedural guidance in complex coronary artery stenting cases (class 2a recommendation, level of evidence B)
[8]. Both OCT and IVUS can identify, localize, and quantify coronary artery calcium, allowing a comprehensive pre-PCI assessment of coronary calcium patterns and severity to predict successful stent expansion. Three essential OCT-derived parameters of coronary calcification predicted stent underexpansion, including an arc of calcium ≥ 180°, calcium length > 5 mm, and calcium thickness ≥ 0.5 mm
[34]. On IVUS, the length of superficial calcium > 270° (≥5 mm), circumferential 360° calcium, a calcified nodule, and a small caliber vessel (<3.5 mm) predicted stent underexpansion
[35]. Calcium scoring systems were developed to identify lesions that may require calcium modification. An OCT-based calcium score of ≥4 or an IVUS-based calcium score of ≥2 was associated with a significantly higher risk of stent underexpansion and indicates the need for calcium modification
[34][35].
Table 2 shows a simplified system to categorize calcified coronary lesion severity into mild/moderate/severe, based on the presence of high-risk features on intravascular imaging
[36].
Table 2. Classification of calcified coronary lesion severity based on intravascular imaging.