A look into stent-related thrombus-burden: Bivalirudin versus heparin.

Use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) adds an assessment of thrombus burden remaining on stents after PCI for acute coronary syndromes. Potential variations in stent-related thrombus burden can be documented by OCT as a function of peri-procedural pharmacology supporting the use of OCT in future hypothesis testing. Bivalirudin remains a reliable and expensive alternative to heparin in cases of HIT or patients at high bleeding risk during transfemoral PCI.