Calcific Coronary Arteriosclerosis

The purpose of this clinical study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a specialized medical device, the Naviscore scoring balloon, in preparing calcified coronary artery narrowings before the implantation of a drug-eluting stent. During percutaneous coronary interventions, the presence of calcified plaques in the heart arteries represents a major challenge because it can prevent stents from expanding fully. When a stent remains under-expanded, it significantly increases the long-term risk of arterial re-narrowing or blood clot formation. To optimize stent expansion, appropriate preparation of the diseased vessel section before stent insertion is a critical phase. This study is a prospective, multi-center randomized trial designed to test the hypothesis that treating calcified coronary lesions with the Naviscore scoring balloon will achieve a better stent expansion and a larger final minimal stent area compared to standard lesion preparation using regular non-compliant balloons. Eligible participants will be randomized in a one-to-one ratio to one of these two lesion preparation strategies. For all included patients, standard drug-eluting stents will be deployed. The study will use intravascular ultrasound imaging to evaluate the final minimum area of the stent directly inside the treated artery at the site of the highest initial calcium burden. Participant health and clinical outcomes will be monitored for up to twelve months following the procedure.

The OROBICA (Overviewing Real-World Outcomes to Boost Interventional Management of CAlcified Coronary Lesions) Registry is a multicenter, ambispective, real-world observational study designed to evaluate clinical, procedural, imaging, and economic outcomes of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for severely calcified coronary artery disease. Coronary artery calcification represents one of the main determinants of procedural complexity and adverse outcomes in contemporary interventional cardiology. Despite the increasing availability of advanced calcium-modification technologies and intracoronary imaging techniques, evidence regarding the optimal treatment strategy in real-world clinical practice remains limited, particularly among high-risk and complex patients often underrepresented in randomized trials. The OROBICA Registry aims to systematically collect longitudinal data from all-comer patients treated for severely calcified coronary lesions using contemporary PCI strategies, including intracoronary imaging guidance (IVUS/OCT), rotational atherectomy, orbital atherectomy, intravascular lithotripsy, specialty balloons, and combined calcium-modification approaches. The primary objective is to assess clinical and procedural outcomes, with particular focus on target vessel failure (TVF). Secondary and exploratory objectives include evaluation of procedural success, imaging findings, predictors of adverse outcomes, healthcare resource utilization, and economic impact associated with the treatment of calcified coronary lesions. The registry is designed as a flexible research platform intended to support future hypothesis-generating analyses and provide real-world evidence to improve personalized management strategies for calcified coronary artery disease.

The objective is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the Inspiron™ EVO drug-eluting stent in complex coronary lesions in a real-world population. Patients with symptomatic ischemic heart disease due to lesions in native coronary arteries and restenotic lesions will be treated with the Inspiron™ EVO drug-eluting stent.

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation has become the dominant treatment strategy for patients with acute and chronic coronary artery disease (CAD) requiring revascularization. Nonetheless, PCI with stent implantation has some limitations and especially patients with severely calcified coronary lesions (approximately 10-20% of all patients with CAD) have an elevated risk for adverse outcomes, including target lesion failure (TLF) and stent thrombosis (ST). Several dedicated PCI devices have been developed for treatment of severely calcified lesions. Whereas especially two of them have shown promising results in smaller, prospective studies. First, the super high-pressure NC PCI balloon (OPN™ NC, SIS Medical AG, Frauenfeld, Switzerland) has been shown to represent an effective and safe device for lesion preparation. Second, the lately introduced Shockwave intravascular lithotripsy (IVL)™ balloon catheter (Shockwave Medical, Santa Clara, CA, USA) appears to be a safe and efficient alternative device for treatment of calcified coronary lesions. However, it remains unknown, if the OPN™ NC balloon is non-inferior to to IVL regarding lesion preparation and completeness of stent expansion in severely calcified lesions.