Design and rationale of ischaemia-driven complete revascularisation versus usual care in patients with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction and multivessel coronary disease: the South Limburg Myocardial Infarction (SLIM) trial

Multivessel versus Culprit-Only Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Patients with Non-ST-Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome

Background: There is uncertainty whether multivessel (MV-PCI) or culprit-only percutaneous coronary intervention (CO-PCI) should be the treatment of choice in patients with non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS) and multivessel disease (MVD). Aims: To evaluate clinical characteristics and outcomes in these patients undergoing MV-PCI or CO-PCI at the index procedure. Methods: Data were retrieved from the nationwide Netherlands Heart Registration. All NSTE-ACS patients with MVD undergoing PCI between 1 January 2017 and 1 October 2019 were grouped into a MV-PCI or CO-PCI group. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality at long-term follow-up (median 756 days (593−996)). Secondary endpoints were reinterventions, urgent CABG, myocardial infarction (MI) < 30 days, target vessel revascularisation (TVR) and mortality at 1 year. Propensity score matching analyses were performed. Results: In total, 10,507 NSTE-ACS patients with MVD were included into the MV-PCI (N = 4235) and CO-PCI group (N = 6272). Analysing crude data, mortality rates at long-term follow-up (10.7% vs. 10.2%; p = 0.383), mortality at 1 year (6.0% vs. 5.6%; p = 0.412) and MI <30 days (0.8% vs. 0.9%; p = 0.513) were similar between both groups. Reinterventions (11.1% vs. 20.0%; p < 0.001), urgent CABG (0.1% vs. 0.4%; p = 0.001) and TVR (5.2% vs. 6.7%; p = 0.003) occurred less often in the MV-PCI group. Survival analysis after multiple imputation and propensity score matching showed similar mortality rates at long-term follow-up (log-rank p = 0.289), but a significant reduction for reinterventions in the MV-PCI group (log-rank p < 0.001). Conclusion: NSTE-ACS patients with MVD undergoing MV-PCI have similar mortality rates at long-term follow-up compared to CO-PCI. However, improved event-free survival in terms of fewer coronary reinterventions was observed.

Using real-world data to monitor and improve quality of care in coronary artery disease: results from the Netherlands Heart Registration

Worldwide, quality registries for cardiovascular diseases enable the use of real-world data to monitor and improve the quality of cardiac care. In the Netherlands Heart Registration (NHR), cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons register baseline, procedural and outcome data across all invasive cardiac interventional, electrophysiological and surgical procedures. This paper provides insight into the governance and processes as organised by the NHR in collaboration with the hospitals. To clarify the processes, examples are given from the percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass grafting registries. Physicians who are mandated by their hospital to instruct the NHR to process their data are united in registration committees. The committees determine standard sets of variables and periodically discuss the completeness and quality of data and patient-relevant outcomes. In the case of significant variation in outcomes, processes of healthcare delivery are discussed and good practices are shared in a non-competitive and safe setting. To create new insights for further improvement in patient-relevant outcomes, quality projects are initiated on, for example, multivessel disease treatment, cardiogenic shock and diagnostic intracoronary procedures. Moreover, possibilities are explored to expand the quality registries through additional relevant indicators, such as resource use before and after the procedure, by enriching NHR data with other existing data resources.

Invasive coronary physiology: a Dutch tradition

Invasive coronary physiology has been applied since the early days of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, and has become a rapidly emerging field of research. Many physiology indices have been developed, tested in clinical studies, and are now applied in daily clinical practice. Recent clinical practice guidelines further support the use of advanced invasive physiology methods to optimise the diagnosis and treatment of patients with acute and chronic coronary syndromes. This article provides a succinct review of the history of invasive coronary physiology, the basic concepts of currently available physiological parameters, and will particularly highlight the Dutch contribution to this field of invasive coronary physiology.