IVUS-Guided Wiring Improves the Clinical Outcomes of Angioplasty for Long Femoropopliteal CTO Compared with the Conventional Intraluminal Approach

Aims: This study aimed to assess the clinical efficacy of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided intraplaque wiring for femoropopliteal (FP) chronic total occlusion (CTO). Methods: This single-center, retrospective, observational study was performed at the Japanese Red Cross Kyoto Daini Hospital. From March 2013 to June 2017, a total of 75 consecutive patients (mean age: 75.4 ± 8.5 years; 59 males), who underwent endovascular treatment (EVT), having 82 de novo FP-CTO lesions, were enrolled in this study. Eleven of the lesions that met the exclusion criteria were excluded, and the remaining 71 lesions were divided into the IVUS-guided wiring group (n = 34) and non-IVUS-guided wiring group (n = 37). Primary patency, defined as a peak systolic velocity ratio of < 2.4 on duplex ultrasonography, and freedom from clinically driven target lesion revascularization (CD-TLR) at 12 months were the primary outcomes. Results: The mean lesion length was 21.6 ± 8.9 cm. The frequencies of primary patency and freedom from CD-TLR were significantly higher in the IVUS-guided wiring group than in the non-IVUS-guided wiring group (70.0% vs. 52.2%, p = 0.045; 83.9% vs. 62.8%, p = 0.036, respectively). The complete clinically true lumen angioplasty rate was also higher in the IVUS-guided wiring group than in the non-IVUS-guided wiring group (91.1% vs. 51.3%, p < 0.001, respectively). The clinically true and false wire passage rates were respectively 97.3% and 2.7% in the IVUS-guided wiring group. Conclusion: IVUS-guided wiring improves the clinical outcomes of EVT for FP-CTO by achieving a high clinically true lumen wire passage rate.