Dr.S.Venkatesan MD

Some of the noise bites from a busy cath lab after a  mid noon angioplasty

         Oh’  that  looks bad , whats that projecting !

There is some haziness too ,

            Make sure its not a flap,

  Better to do IVUS or should I OCT ?

           Shall I  post dilate with NCB ?

Should we cover with  another stent ?

           I think we can manage with Tirofiban or Reopro 

Call the chief ! suggested a first year resident,that seemed to be the most reasonable noise bite among all .Yes, the final command came from the chief cardiologist after a 10 second glance over the workstation ,”Guys,  forget it , . . its acceptable  pinching, DAPT will take care of it , just ensure adequate ACT till night , put the next case . . .on table” !

That’s fairly common chat session in any high volume cath centres (Which ended abruptly  in this case with the chief’s uttering)

Does any body know  what the chief meant by  the term pinching ?

• Is it the  pinch of Intimal fold ?
• Is it pinch of plaque ?
• Is it a flap ?
• Is it a plaque prolapse within the strut ?
• Or just a evaginated thrombus
• A subintimal calcium speck ?
• A longitudinal stent deformation?

Any one knows the histology ? Is there any natural history  study of such pinching ?

Iam afraid no one knows . But common sense tell us it can be anything  between a totally benign entity to  Imminent nidus  for an acute stent thrombosis , depending upon the patient’s destiny and physician’s luck !

How does one make a decision in such an uncertain situation ?

The decision to leave that pinching is taken by any  cardiologist  based on his past experience or  Inexperience or both. Some do IVUS/OCT , many don’t . Whatever the decision  ( empirical or scientific ) its  going to be tentative  and  outcome is any body’s guess.

Final message

Coronary arterial pinching is a dangerous cath lab slang used exclusively by expert Interventional cardiologists , often after a hurried PCI ! It may sound  innocuous .To label a protruding plaque as a “safe pinch”demands heavy courage that is an essential requirement  for a successful Interventional  cardiologist , which most of them are blessed with !

Reference 

1.No Reference as such :There is no specific study about histology of coronary pinching  .Though , IVUS and OCT data are available for various post PCI shadows , it never addresses the issue of pinching specifically as no one is clear about what they mean by it.  Hence ,we are planning to decode this long pending mystery with our own  PINCH-iVUS  study.

2.This article from Circulation Imaging  new generation IVUS could reveal  histology of pinching