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Interventional Options for Coronary Artery Calcification

  • Interventional Cardiology (S Rao, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Coronary artery calcification is an integral process in atherogenesis. When it is moderate or severe, coronary artery calcification presents several challenges to percutaneous coronary intervention. Historically, these difficulties have caused percutaneous coronary intervention of calcified lesions to be associated with lower rates of procedural success, higher rates of angiographic complications, and higher rates of subsequent adverse cardiovascular events. With growth of technologies and maturation of technique for atheroablation, in particular rotational atherectomy and orbital atherectomy, percutaneous coronary intervention of calcified coronary lesions has become possible with an extremely high success rate and a favorable safety profile. In this focused review, we present an updated overview of the pathobiology of coronary artery calcification and discuss the current slate of options for interventional management of calcified coronary lesions.

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  1. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Cardiovascular Institute, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1030, New York, NY, 10029, USA

    Matthew I. Tomey & Samin K. Sharma

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  1. Matthew I. Tomey
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Correspondence to Samin K. Sharma.

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Matthew I. Tomey declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Samin K. Sharma is the principal investigator for the Multi-Center Prospective Study to Evaluate Outcomes of the Moderate to Severely Calcified Coronary Lesions (MACE), sponsored by Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., the manufacturer of the Diamondback orbital atherectomy system. Dr. Sharma has also served on speakers bureaus for Angioscore (the manufacturer of Angiosculpt scoring balloon and a subsidiary of Spectranetics, the manufacturer of the CVX-300 excimer laser coronary angioplasty system), Boston Scientific (the manufacturer of the Flextome cutting balloon and Rotablator rotational atherectomy system), and The Medicines Company (manufacturer of Angiomax [bivalirudin]).

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Tomey, M.I., Sharma, S.K. Interventional Options for Coronary Artery Calcification. Curr Cardiol Rep 18, 12 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-015-0691-8

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