CASE REPORT article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Coronary Artery Disease
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1674711
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Perspectives on Drug-coated Balloons (DCB) For Treatment of Acute and Chronic Coronary Artery DiseaseView all articles
Overcoming Calcified Nodules: Repeated Aggressive Debulking for Calcified Nodules Enabled by a Stent-free Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Approach with Drug-Coated Balloons
Provisionally accepted
Atsushi Funatsu1*
Kenshi Ono1Ryotaro Tani1Hideki Maeda1Masahiro Mizobuchi1Satoshi Akabame1Tomoko Kobayashi1
Norihito Nakamura2Sho Torii2
Gaku Nakazawa3
SHIGERU NAKAMURA1- 1Cardiovascular center, Kyoto Katsura Hospital, Kyoto, Japan
- 2Department of Cardiology, Tokai University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan
- 3Department of Cardiology, Kindai University, Osaka, Japan
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: The outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for calcified nodules (CNs) has been unsatisfactory results, even with the use of drug eluting stents. The optimal treatment strategy for CNs continues to be a matter of debate, with no definitive solution in sight. Case Presentation: We present a case of a 76-year-old male with recurrent restenosis due to a CNs in the ostium of left circumflex artery. He underwent repeated stent-free PCI with aggressive debulking using atherectomy devices followed by drug coated balloon (DCB). Outcome: The patient experienced recurrent restenosis every six months; however, after undergoing three sessions of stent-free PCI using atherectomy device and DCB, the lesion remained free of restenosis witch was confirmed at 4 years follow up. Conclusion: This case highlights the potential of repeated stent-free PCI with debulking of calcified tissue followed by DCB angioplasty as a viable treatment option for CNs.
Keywords: Calcified nodules, Debulking, Drug coated balloon (DCB), restenosis, Stent-less intervention
Received: 28 Jul 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Funatsu, Ono, Tani, Maeda, Mizobuchi, Akabame, Kobayashi, Nakamura, Torii, Nakazawa and NAKAMURA. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Atsushi Funatsu, kcvc.funatsu@katsura.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.