Research advances in optical coherence tomography-based vascular healing evaluation after biodegradable polymer drug-eluting stents implantation

Drug-eluting stents (DES) significantly improved the clinical efficiency in treating patients with coronary artery disease compared with bare metal stents. However, durable polymers of DES will prolong re-endothelialization and impair vascular healing, which will result in an increased risk of late stent thrombosis. Recently, newer generation stents (e.g. biodegradable polymer DES) have been designed to overcome these drawbacks. The optimization of stent components has improved vascular healing after DES implantation. Optical coherence tomography, an intravascular imaging modality, with its high resolution can be used to evaluate re-endothelilization and vascular healing after DES implantation, which provides the possibility of predicting risk of thrombotic events. The present review aims to summarize the research progress with respect to vascular healing and re-endothelialization after biodegradable polymer DES implantation.