Step-by-step StentBoost-guided small vessel stenting using the self-expandable Sparrow stent-in-wire.

A 56 year-old woman underwent percutaneous coronary intervention for a lesion in a small mid-left anterior descending coronary artery (reference vessel diameter by quantitative coronary angiography: 2.11 mm) with a novel drug-eluting stent specifically designed for small vessels, the CardioMind Sparrow stent delivery system. This is a self-expandable sirolimus-eluting nitinol stent directly mounted into a 0.014-inch coronary guidewire. The stent has a very thin strut thickness (67 micron), limiting its radiopacity. A specific X-ray stent-enhancing visualization technique, "StentBoost", allowed clear visualization and understanding of the steps needed for an appropriate release and deployment of the aforementioned stent. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.