Intravascular Lithotripsy for Treatment of Severely Calcified Coronary Lesions: 1-Year Results From the Disrupt CAD III Study

Background: Coronary calcification impairs stent delivery and optimal expansion, a significant predictor of subsequent stent thrombosis and restenosis. Current calcium ablative technologies may be limited by guidewire bias and periprocedural complications. Intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) delivers acoustic pressure waves to modify calcium, enhance vessel compliance, and optimize stent deployment. The Disrupt CAD III study demonstrated high (92.4%) procedural success and low (7.8%) 30-day major adverse cardiac event (MACE) rates following IVL, but longer term follow-up is required to determine the durability of clinical benefit and the late impact of optimized stent implantation associated with IVL. This analysis evaluates 1-year outcomes from the Disrupt CAD III study. Methods: Disrupt CAD III (NCT03595176) was a prospective, single-arm approval study designed to assess the safety and effectiveness of IVL as an adjunct to coronary stenting in de novo, severely calcified coronary lesions (n = 384). MACE was defined as the composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), or ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization; target lesion failure was defined as cardiac death, MI, or ischemia-driven target lesion revascularization (ID-TLR). Results: At 1 year, MACE occurred in 13.8% of patients (cardiac death: 1.1%, MI: 10.5%, ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization: 6.0%) and target lesion failure occurred in 11.9% (ID-TLR: 4.3%), both driven by non-Q-wave MI (9.2%). Stent thrombosis (definite or probable) occurred in 1.1% of patients (including 1 event [0.3%] beyond 30 ​days). Conclusions: Disrupt CAD III represents the largest long-term (1-year) analysis of coronary IVL to date. IVL treatment prior to coronary stent implantation in severely calcified lesions was associated with low 1-year rates of MACE, ID-TLR, and stent thrombosis.