Aspirating and filtering atherothrombotic debris during percutaneous coronary intervention.

he coronary “no-reflow” phenomenon can occur during eperfusion of an infarct artery or after percutaneous coroary intervention (PCI) (1). It represents inadequate myoardial perfusion despite epicardial coronary artery patency nd can be caused by reperfusion injury, embolization of therosclerotic or thrombotic debris, or ischemia-induced icrovascular damage from endothelial cell injury, leukoyte plugging of capillaries, myocardial cell edema, free xygen radical generation, and microvascular spasm. Persisent no-reflow is associated with a high incidence of yocardial infarction (MI) and the risks of congestive heart ailure and death.