One-year clinical outcomes of coronary chronic total occlusion intervention in patients with acute coronary syndrome versus stable angina: from the Korean chronic total occlusion registry.

BACKGROUND: Chronic total occlusion intervention remains challenging and detailed real-world data on the safety and efficacy of which are limited. This study sought to determine whether there are differences in the 1-year clinical outcomes between chronic total occlusion patients with acute coronary syndrome and stable angina following chronic total occlusion intervention. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data from the Korean chronic total occlusion registry were collected from May 2003 to September 2012, and a total of 3268 patients who underwent chronic total occlusion intervention were enrolled. Cardiovascular outcomes up to 12 months in the acute coronary syndrome group were compared with stable angina group. RESULTS: The acute coronary syndrome group consisted of 1657 patients, and stable angina group consisted of 1264 patients. In the acute coronary syndrome group, patients with successful chronic total occlusion intervention had a lower incidence of total death and cardiac death compared to patients with failed intervention. However, there were no significant differences in cardiovascular events in the stable angina group. The successful chronic total occlusion intervention was a significant prognostic factor for lower total death (P = 0.006, hazard ratio = 0.46) and cardiac death (P = 0.003, hazard ratio = 0.36) within acute coronary syndrome group. On the other hand, successful chronic total occlusion intervention was not a prognostic factor for cardiovascular events within stable angina group. CONCLUSIONS: Successful chronic total occlusion intervention in acute coronary syndrome patients was associated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular outcome compared to patients with failed chronic total occlusion intervention.

Impact of chronic total occlusion lesion length on six-month angiographic and 2-year clinical outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Successful management of chronic total occlusion (CTO)by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is known to be associated with better clinical outcomes than failed PCI. However, whether angiographic and clinical outcomes following PCI for long CTO lesions differ from those following PCI for short CTO lesions in the drug eluting stent (DES) era remains unknown. We therefore investigated whether CTO lesion length can significantly influence6-month angiographic and 2-year clinical outcomes following successful CTO PCI. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 235 consecutive patients who underwent successful CTO intervention were allocated into either the long or short CTO group according to CTO lesion length. Six-month angiographic and 2-year clinical outcomes were then compared between the 2groups. We found that baseline clinical characteristics were generally similar between the 2 groups. Exceptions were prior PCI, which was more frequent in the long CTO group, and bifurcation lesions, which were more frequent in the short CTO group. Apart from intimal dissection, which was more frequent in the long than short CTO group, in-hospital complications were also similarly frequent between the 2groups. Furthermore, both groups had similar angiographic outcomes at 6 months and clinical outcomes at 2 years. However, the incidence of repeat PCI(predominantly target vessel revascularization),was higher in the long than short CTO group, with our multivariate analysis identifying long CTO as an important predictor of repeat PCI (odds ratio, 4.26;95% confidence interval, 1.53-11.9; p = 0.006). CONCLUSION: The safety profile, 6-month angiographic, and 2-year clinical outcomes of CTO PCI were similar between patients with long and short CTO. However, there was a higher incidence of repeat PCI in long CTO patients despite successful PCI with DESs.

Impact of serum lipoprotein(a) on endothelium-dependent coronary vasomotor response assessed by intracoronary acetylcholine provocation.

BACKGROUND: Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is an independent risk factor for atherosclerotic vascular disease. However, there are limited data regarding the impact of Lp(a) levels on the incidence and severity of endothelium-dependent coronary vasomotor response. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 2416 patients without significant coronary artery lesion (<50% stenosis) by coronary angiography and underwent acetylcholine (ACh) provocation test were enrolled and categorized according to their serum Lp(a) level into four quartile groups: less than 6.70, 6.70-13.30, 13.30-26.27, and more than 26.27 mg/dl. The aim of this study is to estimate the incidence and severity of endothelium-dependent positive ACh provocation test in each group; moreover, to access the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events, the composite of total death, myocardial infarction, and de novo percutaneous coronary intervention were compared between the four groups up to 5 years. RESULTS: The group with higher Lp(a) had a higher incidence of coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, and peripheral arterial disease history. However, there was no difference among the four groups as regards the incidence of positive ACh provocation test, spasm severity, spasm extent, and location. However, at up to 5 years of clinical follow-up, the higher-Lp(a) group showed higher total death, de novo percutaneous coronary intervention, recurrent angina, and total major adverse cardiovascular events compared with the lower-Lp(a) groups. CONCLUSION: In our study, there was no relationship between the elevated Lp(a) level and the vasospastic response to the intracoronary ACh provocation test; however, higher Lp(a) levels were associated with poor clinical outcomes up to 5 years.