AimTo investigate whether von Willebrand factor (vWF) can predict endothelialization after coronary stent implantation.MethodsOptical coherence tomography (OCT) images were obtained in 32 diseased coronary vessels with 34 stents in 30 patients with coronary artery disease who had no restenosis on follow up angiography at 12~18 months post drug-eluting stent (DES).Patients with complete endothelialization of the struts were considered as complete endothelialization group, patients with incomplete endothelialization of the DES struts were considered as incomplete endothelialization group, patients with angiographily diagonased nomal coronary were selected as the control group.For all the patients blood was drawed from elbow venous after operation, then plasma vWF levels of the three groups were tested.ResultsThe plasma vWF levels of incomplete endothelialization group were significantly higher than the complete endothelialization group and the control group (29.13±8.47 μg/L vs 13.81±1.04 μg/L and 12.83±1.13 μg/L,p<0.05), the plasma vWF levels had no significant difference in the complete endothelialization group and the control group (p>0.05).ConclusionsOur study confirms that the plasma vWF level has certain reference value in predicting endothelialization after coronary stent implantation.To some extent, the plasma vWF level can guide how long the antiplatelet therapy should be continued for the patients with coronary artery disease who had DES implanted.