Mechanisms of Medial Wall Thinning in Chronic Total Occlusion

The success rate of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for chronic total occlusion (CTO) is lower and the risk for complications higher compared with other non-CTO PCI. Although interventionalists focus on intimal plaque characteristics, the coronary media is an important (especially for techniques involving antegrade dissection and re-entry) but poorly understood structure in CTO PCI.