In Vivo Demonstration of Frail Neointimal Tissue Embolization After Angioplasty With a Drug-Coated Balloon Confirmed by Optical Coherence Tomography and Histology

A 60-year-old woman experienced exertional chest pain. She underwent percutaneous coronary intervention with a drug-eluting stent (Nobori, Terumo Corporation, Tokyo) at the midportion of the left anterior descending artery. In the 3-month follow-up angiography, there was an in-stent restenosis at the midportion of the left anterior descending artery, which was also the site of a previous stent implantation (arrow, Figure 1A). In optical coherence tomography, neointimal hyperplasia proliferation with a heterogeneous pattern was observed with a minimal lumen area of 1.7 mm2 (asterisk, Figure 1A). Angioplasty with a drug-coated balloon (Sequent please; B. Braun, Melsungen, Germany) …