The procedure of percutaneous coronary intervention is associated with the 30% risk of restenosis in the dilatated coronary artery. in order to minimize its occurrence we developed the method of intracoronary low power laser irradiation and called it the photoremodling. We developed and constructed at total set-up for the intravascular illumination. It consists of the laser diode connected with a multimode step-index silica fiber 200/270 μm terminated with a special fiber diffuser, which allows to irradiate homogeneously a coronary vessel in the place of dilatation. The diffuser is inserted into the coronary vessel by a modificated angioplasty catheter. Till now PTCA plus photoremodeling procedures have been carried out in 40 patients (28 with stent implantation and 12 with balloon angioplasty). We did not observed any side effects and complications of the procedure. All patients were qualified for 6 months follow-up, which was terminated in 19 cases with a control coronarography. We did not find any case of restenosis in the stent group. In the group of patients after balloon angioplasty restenosis rate was 25%. The new method of treatment is safe. The preliminary results seem to be beneficial especially in the case of stent implantation.

Date Published: 7 July 2004
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 5505, Optical Methods, Sensors, Image Processing, and Visualization in Medicine, (7 July 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.577617

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5505:
Optical Methods, Sensors, Image Processing, and Visualization in Medicine
Antoni Nowakowski; Bogdan B. Kosmowski, Editor(s)