Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Unknown status
Study Type: Observational
Official Title: Human Coronary Aspirate: Characterization of Particular and Soluble Substances and the Impact on Microvascular Obstruction
Brief Summary: During elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), both proximal and distal protection devices are used. The distal occlusion protection device temporarily occludes the vessel distal to the lesion during the intervention, thereby capturing both particular debris and soluble substances released from the lesion such that they can be aspirated and prevented from reaching the coronary microcirculation. Rather than simply discarding the material which is retrieved from use of protection devices, the investigators have recently taken advantage of this situation, sampled the particulate and soluble material and subjected it to a variety of analyses with the ultimate goal to have a better insight into the respective plaque composition and to correlate it to the individual imaging and clinical data. On the basis of such information the investigators aim to better understand the pathophysiology of plaque vulnerability and to possibly predict the clinical development of the individual patient.