Optical coherence tomography: evaluating the effects of stent boost subtract imaging on stent underexpansion in STEMI patients

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the effect of stent boost subtract (SBS) imaging on stent underexpansion during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) by optical coherence tomography (OCT). METHODS: One hundred thirty-eight STEMI patients who underwent drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation were prospectively recruited and divided into the SBS group (69 cases) and the CAG group (69 cases) according to whether SBS was used to guide PCI. Finally, OCT was performed on all enrolled patients, and the OCT results were used as the gold standard to evaluate the impact of standard SBS technology on stent underexpansion immediately after DES implantation. RESULTS: SBS identified 51 patients (24%) with stent underexpansion while OCT identified 56 patients (27.2%). SBS has a sensitivity of 80%, a specificity of 96%, a positive predictive value of 88%, and a negative predictive value of 93% for identifying stent underexpansion. CONCLUSION: Compared with OCT, SBS technology is a rapid stent imaging evaluation method that can accurately quantify the stent expansion level and is time-saving and economical. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12872-022-02498-9.