Angiography-derived physiological patterns of coronary artery disease: implications with post-stenting physiology and long-term clinical outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Physiological patterns of coronary artery disease (CAD) have emerged as potential determinants of functional results of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) and of vessel-oriented clinical outcomes (VOCE). OBJECTIVES: In this study, we evaluated the impact of angiography-derived physiological patterns of CAD on post-PCI functional results and long-term clinical outcomes. METHODS: Pre-PCI angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (FFR) virtual pullbacks were quantitatively interpreted and used to determine the physiological patterns of CAD. Suboptimal post-PCI physiology was defined as an angiography-derived FFR value ≤ 0.91. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of VOCE at the longest available follow-up. RESULTS: Six hundred fifteen lesions from 516 patients were stratified into predominantly focal (n = 322, 52.3%) and predominantly diffuse (n = 293, 47.7%). Diffuse pattern of CAD was associated with lower post-PCI angiography-derived FFR values (0.91 ± 0.05 vs. 0.94 ± 0.05; p = 0.001) and larger rate of suboptimal post-PCI physiology (43.0 vs. 22.7%; p = 0.001), as compared to focal CAD. At the median follow-up time of 37 months (33-58), post-PCI suboptimal physiology was related to a higher risk of VOCE (16.2% vs. 7.6%; HR: 2.311; 95% CI 1.410-3.794; p = 0.0009), while no significant difference was noted according to baseline physiological pattern. In diffuse disease, the use of intracoronary imaging was associated with a lower incidence of long-term VOCE (5.1% vs 14.8%; HR: 0.313, 95% CI 0.167-0.614, p = 0.030). CONCLUSIONS: Suboptimal post-PCI physiology is observed more often in diffusely diseased arteries and it is associated with higher risk of VOCE at follow-up. The use of intravascular imaging might improve clinical outcomes in the setting of diffuse CAD.

Comprehensive Angiography-Derived Functional Assessment of Epicardial and Microvascular Coronary Disease. Correlation With Non-invasive Myocardial Stress Imaging.

Coronary angiography (CA) is poorly correlated with non-invasive myocardial stress imaging (NSI) and myocardial ischemia is often observed in patients with unobstructed coronary arteries. Moreover, the diagnostic performance of combined epicardial and microcirculatory angiography-derived physiological assessment and its correlation with NSI remains unknown. A total of 917 coronary vessels in 319 patients who underwent both CA and NSI were included in this multicenter observational retrospective analysis. Quantitative flow ratio (QFR) and angiography-derived index of microcirculatory resistance (IMRangio) analyses were performed to estimate coronary epicardial and microcirculatory function respectively. NSI demonstrated evidence of myocardial ischemia in 76% of the cases. IMRangio (36 [22 to 50] vs 29 [21 to 41], p <0.001) was significantly higher and QFR (0.92 [0.78 to 0.99] vs 0.97 [0.91 to 0.99], p <0.001) was significantly lower in vessels subtending ischemic territories. Overall, the diagnostic accuracy of QFR was moderate (area under the curve of receiver operating characteristic [AUCROC] 0.632 [95% confidence interval [CI] 0.589 to 0.674], p <0.0001) but it was higher in patients with normal microcirculatory function (AUCROC = 0.726 [95% CI 0.669 to 0.784], p <0.0001, p Value for AUCROC comparison = 0.009). Combined QFR/IMRangio assessment provided incremental diagnostic performance compared with the evaluation of epicardial or microcirculatory districts in isolation (p Value for AUC comparison <0.0001) and it was able to identify the predominant mechanism of myocardial ischemia in 77% of the patients with positive NSI. Our study suggests the value of a combined angiography-derived assessment of epicardial and microvascular function for the definition of the predominant mechanism of myocardial ischemia in patients with suspected coronary artery disease.

Prognostic role of discordance between quantitative flow ratio and visual estimation in revascularization guidance.

Aims: Revascularization guided by functional severity has presented improved outcomes compared with visual angiographic guidance. Quantitative flow ratio (QFR) is a reliable angiography-based method for functional assessment. We sought to investigate the prognostic value of discordance between QFR and visual estimation in coronary revascularization guidance. Methods and results: We performed offline QFR analysis on all-comers undergoing coronary angiography. Vessels with calculated QFR were divided into four groups based on the decision to perform or defer percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and on the QFR result, i.e.: Group A (PCI-, QFR > 0.8); Group B (PCI+, QFR ≤ 0.8); Group C (PCI+, QFR > 0.8); Group D (PCI-, QFR ≤ 0.8). Patients with at least one vessel falling within the disagreement groups formed the discordance group, whereas the remaining patients formed the concordance group. The primary endpoint was the composite endpoint of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and ischaemia-driven revascularization. Overall, 546 patients were included in the study. Discordance between QFR and visual estimation was found in 26.2% of patients. After a median follow-up period of 2.5 years, the discordance group had a significantly higher rate of the composite outcome (hazard ratio: 3.34, 95% confidence interval 1.99-5.60, P < 0.001). Both disagreement vessel Groups C and D were associated with increased cardiovascular risk compared with agreement Groups A and B. Conclusion: Discordance between QFR and visual estimation in revascularization guidance was associated with a worse long-term prognosis. Our results highlight the importance of proper patient selection for intervention and the need to avoid improper stent implantations when not dictated by a comprehensive functional assessment.

Prognostic Value of Post-PCI Angiography-Derived Fractional Flow Reserve: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies.

The post-percutaneous coronary intervention (post-PCI) fractional flow reserve (FFR) can detect suboptimal PCI or residual ischemia and potentially lead to fewer adverse clinical outcomes. We sought to investigate the predictive value of the angiography-derived FFR for adverse cardiovascular events in patients after PCI. We conducted a comprehensive search of electronic databases, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library, for studies published until March 2023 that investigated the prognostic role of angiography-derived fractional flow reserve values after PCI. We investigated the best predictive ability of the post-PCI angiography-derived FFR and relative risk (RR) estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) between post-PCI angiography-derived FFR values and adverse events. Thirteen cohort studies involving 6961 patients (9719 vascular lesions; mean follow-up: 2.2 years) were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled HR of the studies using specific cut-off points for post-PCI angiography-derived FFR was 4.13 (95% CI, 2.92-5.82) for total cardiovascular events, while the pooled HRs for target vessel revascularization, cardiac death, target vessel myocardial infarction, and target lesion revascularization were 6.87 (95% CI, 4.93-9.56), 6.17 (95% CI, 3.52-10.80), 3.98 (95% CI, 2.37-6.66) and 6.27 (95% CI, 3.08-12.79), respectively. In a sensitivity analysis of three studies with 1789 patients assessing the predictive role of the post-PCI angiography-derived FFR as a continuous variable, we found a 58% risk reduction for future adverse events per 0.1 increase in the post-PCI angiography-derived FFR value. In conclusion, post-PCI angiography-derived FFR is an effective tool for predicting adverse cardiovascular events and could be potentially used in decision making, both during PCI and in the long-term follow-up.

Angiography-based estimation of coronary physiology: A frame is worth a thousand words.

Cumulative evidence has shown that coronary revascularization should be guided by functional significance of coronary lesions. Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is the gold standard for assessment of hemodynamic significance of coronary stenosis and FFR-guided percutaneous coronary intervention has improved clinical outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease. However, limitations of FFR such as increased operational time and cost, requirement of pressure wire and adenosine and technical difficulties have led to significant underutilization of the method in clinical practice. In the last few years, several methods of FFR estimation based on coronary angiography images have emerged to overcome invasive FFR limitations. The common elements of the novel indices include a 3D anatomical reconstruction of coronary vessels by angiographic projections and various approaches to fluid dynamics computation. Angiography-derived FFR methods have shown high diagnostic accuracy compared to invasive FFR. Although there are promising results regarding their prognostic role, large randomized trials evaluating clinical outcomes are lacking. The aim of this review is to present currently available angiography-derived FFR indices and highlight their differences, advantages, disadvantages and potential clinical implications.