Abstract

Our aim was to evaluate the feasibility and safety of routine transradial approach (TRA) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for chronic total occlusion (CTO) lesions using the sheathless technique with standard guiding catheters. Transradial approach PCI was applied for CTO lesions. A major limitation of TRA CTO PCI is the inability to use large guiding catheters because of the relatively small size of the radial artery. Therefore, the sheathless technique for TRA PCI has been recently developed. However, reports on TRA CTO PCI using the sheathless technique are still lacking. Sixty-eight patients with CTO lesions were enrolled for TRA PCI using the sheathless technique with standard guiding catheters. The baseline characteristics, coronary angiographic characteristics and major procedure or access site related complications were compared between procedure success and procedure failure group to determine the predictors of success in sheathless CTO PCI. In-hospital and 30-day clinical outcomes were also evaluated in this study. Routine assessments of radial artery occlusion via Doppler ultrasound and pulse oximeter were recorded during one-year clinical follow-up. The mean duration of CTO by history was 31.8 ± 42.3 months. The 7 Fr standard guiding catheter was used with the sheathless technique in 91.2%, and bilateral sheathless approach in 42.6% of the study patients. The procedure-related complications included coronary perforation needing covered stent deployment (2.9%), cardiac tamponade (2.9%), collateral perforation needing coil deployment (4.4%), and contrast induced nephropathy (2.9%). Only 2 patients (2.9%) experienced forearm ecchymosis at the radial artery access sites. In-hospital mortality and 30-day all-cause mortality were 2.9%, and 30-day MACEs were 1.5%. The rate of radial artery occlusion during one-year clinical follow-up was only 3.0%. It is feasible and safe to routinely use the sheathless technique with standard guiding catheters for TRA CTO PCI, with a low incidence of procedure-related complications and long-term radial artery occlusion.

Abstract

Subjective health status is an increasingly important parameter to assess the effect of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in clinical practice. Aim of this study was to determine medical and psychosocial predictors of poor subjective health status over a 10 years' post-PCI period. We included a series of consecutive PCI patients (n = 573) as part of the RESEARCH registry, a Dutch single-center retrospective cohort study. These patients completed the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) at baseline and 10 years post-PCI. We found 6 predictors of poor subjective health status 10 years post-PCI: SF-36 at baseline, age, previous PCI, obesity, acute myocardial infarction as indication for PCI, and diabetes mellitus (arranged from most to least numbers of sub domains). SF-36 scores at baseline, age, and previous PCI were significant predictors of subjective health status 10 years post-PCI. Specifically, the SF-36 score at baseline was an important predictor. Thus assessment of subjective health status at baseline is useful as an indicator to predict long-term subjective health status. Subjective health status becomes better by optimal medical treatment, cardiac rehabilitation and psychosocial support. This is the first study determining predictors of subjective health status 10 years post-PCI.

Abstract

In optical coherence tomography (OCT)-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), stent size is usually determined according to the pre-PCI lumen size of either the distal or proximal reference site. However, the effect of the OCT imaging catheter crossing the target lesion on the reference lumen measurements has not been studied. We evaluated changes in the reference lumen size before and after PCI using frequency domain OCT. For 100 consecutive patients with PCI, mean lumen diameter (LD) and lumen area (LA) were measured at the proximal and distal reference sites before and after coronary stent implantation with OCT. Mean LD and LA of the distal reference site were significantly increased after PCI with stent implantation (2.57 ± 0.6 to 2.62 ± 0.64 mm, p < 0.01 and 5.20 ± 2.66 to 5.41 ± 2.54 mm2, p < 0.01, respectively). By contrast, these indices at the proximal reference site were significantly decreased. ROC curve analysis selected MLA of 1.50 mm2 as the best cutoff value for changes in mean LD. Distal mean LD was markedly increased after PCI in lesions with MLA < 1.50 mm (2.28 ± 0.48 to 2.40 ± 0.17 mm, P < 0.001), but did not change in lesions with MLA > 1.50 mm2. Tissue characteristics were not correlated with changes in reference lumen size. When we select the stent size during OCT-guided PCI, we need to pay attention to the decrease in the luminal measurement of the reference sites, especially in lesions with tight stenosis.

Abstract

Accessibility of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in primary care settings is limited. Referring patients to PCI-capable hospitals might increase cardiac events. Hence, fibrinolytic injection before referring patients to PCI-capable settings decreases cardiac events, however, the effect of fibrinolytic injection before the referral has not been systematically evaluated. This study aimed to systematically review the effect of fibrinolytic injection before referring patients with STEMI to PCI-capable settings. A systematic search with Embase, Cochrane CENTRAL, Google scholar, and PubMed was conducted. Studies conducted in patients with STEMI presented to non PCI-capable settings and compared fibrinolytic injection with no injection before referring patients to PCI-capable settings were included. The primary outcome was the composite outcomes of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) at 30 days. Meta-analyses were performed using random-effect model. Of 912 articles, three RCTs and three non-RCTs were included. Based on RCTs, fibrinolytic injection before the referral has failed to decrease MACEs compared to non-fibrinolytic injection [relative risk (RR) 1.18, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.89–1.57, p = 0.237]. Fibrinolytic injection has also failed to decrease mortality, re-infarction, and ischemic stroke. On the other hand, fibrinolytic injection was associated with a higher risk of major bleeding. In non PCI-capable settings, fibrinolytic injection before referring patients with STEMI to PCI-capable settings has no clinical benefit but could increase risk of major bleeding. Clinicians might more carefully consider whether fibrinolytic injection should be used in patients with STEMI before the referral.

Abstract

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) may be complicated by periprocedural myocardial infarction (PMI) as manifested by elevated cardiac biomarkers such as creatine kinase (CK)-MB or troponin T. The occurrence of PMI has been shown to be associated with worse short- and long-term clinical outcome. However, recent studies suggest that PMI defined by biomarker levels alone is a marker of atherosclerosis burden and procedural complexity but in most cases does not have independent prognostic significance. Diagnostic multi-modality imaging such as intravascular ultrasound, optical coherence tomography, coronary angioscopy, near-infrared spectroscopy, multidetector computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging can be used to closely investigate the atherosclerotic lesion in order to detect morphological markers of unstable and vulnerable plaques in the patients undergoing PCI. With the improvement of technical aspects of multimodality coronary imaging, clinical practice and research are increasingly shifting toward defining the clinical implication of plaque morphology and patients outcomes. There were numerous published data regarding the relationship between pre-PCI lesion subsets on multi-modality imaging and post-PCI biomarker levels. In this review, we discuss the relationship between coronary plaque morphology estimated by invasive or noninvasive coronary imaging and the occurrence of PMI. Furthermore, this review underlies that the value of the multimodality coronary imaging approach will become the gold standard for invasive or noninvasive prediction of PMI in clinical practice.

Abstract

Following the development of breakthrough techniques for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the treatment of chronic total occlusions (CTO), the initial success rate of PCI in CTO lesions (CTO-PCI) has improved, however, there are few reports regarding the effects of successful CTO revascularization on long-term mortality in Japan. The aim of this study was to compare the long-term clinical outcomes of patients with successful versus failed CTO recanalization and to identify related factors. From all PCI procedures performed in our hospital between 2006 and 2013, CTO-PCIs were extracted and classified into two groups: PCI success (n = 656 patients) and PCI failure (n = 82 patients). Patients with successful procedures only on a second attempt, CTO-PCI in small branches, or CTOs in more than one vessel were excluded. Survival was determined from a telephone interview or the consultation history in the outpatient clinic. Initial angiographic success was achieved in 88.9% of the patients. A Kaplan–Meier plot with log-rank analysis showed that cumulative all-cause death was significantly lower in the success group than in the failure group (p = 0.0003, average follow-up duration in success group vs. failure group was 1531.3 ± 33.5 vs. 1565.3 ± 97.5 days, p = 0.7). Moreover, the rate of evident cardiac death was significantly lower in the success group than in the failure group (3.5% [23/656] vs. 15.9% [13/82], p < 0.0001). This study suggests that successful revascularization in patients with CTO improves their long-term clinical outcomes.