OCT image acquisition protocol and analysis
BLOOD
After stent implantation, intracoronary frequency domain-OCT recordings were obtained using the commercially available ILUMIEN OPTIS™ or OPTIS integrated™ systems with the Dragonfly™ rapid exchange OCT catheter (Abbott, St Paul, MN, US). Intracoronary nitroglycerine was administered before starting the pullback. Blood displacement was achieved by manual injection of contrast and pullback speed was set to 54 mm/s. If suboptimal stent result such as malapposition were found in the immediate post-PCI OCT, further optimization was performed, and a new OCT was recorded. At follow-up, OCT recordings were obtained following the same protocol. OCT recordings were analyzed with Caas IV-LINQ software version 2.1 (Pie Medical Imaging Systems, Maastrich, The Netherlands) with a frame slice thickness of 0.1 mm for 54 mm/s pullbacks and 0.2 mm on the occasions where pullback speed was set to 75 mm/s.