Background: Management of thrombus burden during primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) is a key-point, given the high risk of stent malapposition and/or thrombus embolization. These issues are especially important if pPCI involves a coronary bifurcation. Herein, a new experimental bifurcation bench model to analyze thrombus burden behavior was developed. Methods: On a fractal left main bifurcation bench model, we generated standardized thrombus with human blood and tissue factor. Three provisional pPCI strategies were compared (n = 10/group): 1) balloon-expandable stent (BES), 2) BES completed by proximal optimizing technique (POT), and 3) nitinol self-apposing stent (SAS). The embolized distal thrombus after stent implantation was weighed. Stent apposition and thrombus trapped by the stent were quantified on 2D-OCT. To analyze final stent apposition, a new OCT acquisition was performed after pharmacological thrombolysis. Results: Trapped thrombus was significantly greater with isolated BES than SAS or BES+POT (18.8 +/- 5.8% vs. 10.3 +/- 3.3% and 6.2 +/- 2.1%, respectively; p < 0.05), and greater with SAS than BES+POT (p < 0.05). Isolated BES and SAS tended show less embolized thrombus than BES+POT (5.93 +/- 4.32 mg and 5.05 +/- 4.56 mg vs. 7.01 +/- 4.32 mg, respectively; p = NS). Conversely, SAS and BES+POT ensured perfect final global apposition (0.4 +/- 0.6% and 1.3 +/- 1.3%, respectively, p = NS) compared to isolated BES (74.0 +/- 7.6%, p < 0.05). Conclusions: This first experimental bench model of pPCI in a bifurcation quantified thrombus trapping and embolization. BES provided the best thrombus trapping, while SAS and BES+POT achieved better final stent apposition. These factors should be taken into account in selecting revascularization strategy.
