▲ (from the left) Professor Duk-Woo Park, Professor Do-Yoon Kang, and Professor Seung-Jung Park

When dealing with complex intravascular lesions during a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), imaging instruments play a crucial role in accurately visualizing the interior of blood vessels. While the commonly used instruments are intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT), an ongoing debate has revolved around their comparative safety. A research team, led by Professor Duk-Woo Park, Professor Do-Yoon Kang, and Professor Seung-Jung Park from the Division of Cardiology at Asan Medical Center, recently presented their findings at a Hot Line Session on August 27, 2023, during the ESC Congress 2023. Their study involved a large-scale comparison and analysis of treatment outcomes using these two imaging instruments.

The research team categorized patients who underwent PCI between 2018 and 2022 into two groups based on the type of intravascular imaging device used: 1,003 patients with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and 1,005 patients with optical coherence tomography. They subsequently compared and analyzed the incidence of major clinical events within one year, such as myocardial infarction, ischemia requiring reintervention, or cardiac death. The results revealed no statistically significant inter-group differences in the occurrence rate of major clinical events, with 3.1% in the IVUS group and 2.5% in the OCT group. Intervention-related complications were also not significantly different between the two groups, standing at 3.7% and 2.2%, respectively.

▲ Professor Duk-Woo Park is presenting during a Hot Line Session at ESC Congress 2023, held in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Professor Duk-Woo Park, who presented the findings at a Hot Line Session during ESC Congress 2023, remarked, “Intravascular ultrasound, which predates optical coherence tomography, has long been considered the standard, and only small-scale safety studies have examined OCT safety. This study has now shown that both devices are equally safe, with no significant differences in the incidence of major clinical events, all of which remained below 3% per year.”

The research findings were also published in 'Circulation,' an official journal of the American College of Cardiology.