Successful percutaneous removal of dislodged ring-marker of optical coherence tomography catheter using the twisted wire technique with a guide-extension catheter: A case report

Abstract An 81-year-old male with diabetes and hypertension was admitted to our hospital due to chest pain on exertion. Coronary angiography revealed a severe stenosis at the middle of right coronary artery (RCA). We performed percutaneous coronary intervention under the guidance of optical coherence tomography (OCT) to the lesion in the middle RCA. After balloon dilations, a drug-eluting stent was deployed to the lesion. Then, OCT examination was performed. At that time, fluoroscopy revealed a foreign body over the 0.014-inch guidewire in the distal RCA, which was the ring-marker of OCT catheter. As RCA blood flow was well preserved, percutaneous removal of the dislodged ring-marker was immediately attempted. At first, we tried to remove the dislodged ring-marker with the guide-extension catheter trapping technique. However, it failed and advanced balloon catheter made the dislodged ring-marker migrate more distally. Therefore, we tried the twisted wire technique with the guide-extension catheter and finally the dislodged ring-marker was removed with it. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of a successful percutaneous removal of a dislodged ring-marker of OCT catheter using the twisted wire technique with a guide-extension catheter.