Impact of Chronic Kidney Disease on Utilization of Coronary Angiography and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention, and Their Outcomes in Patients With Non-ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Prognosis of patients with renal failure one year following non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction treated with percutaneous coronary intervention

OBJECTIVE

Kidney failure is highly prevalent in patients with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). The aim of the study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of baseline renal function regarding in-hospital and 1-year mortality among patients with NSTEMI and treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

METHODS

Data were obtained from the Polish Registry of Acute Coronary Syndromes (PL-ACS) and included 47,052 NSTEMI patients treated with PCI between 2017 and 2021. The cumulative incidence of all-cause mortality during the 1-year follow-up was presented using the Kaplan-Meier curves. The multivariable Cox regression model was created to adjust the relationship between eGFR (as a spline term) and all-cause mortality for potential confounders.

RESULTS

After considering the exclusion criteria, 20,834 cases were evaluated, with a median eGFR of 72.7 (IQR 56.6-87.5) mL/min/1.73 m2. The median age was 69 (62-76) years. The study comprised 4,505 patients with normal (90-120), 10,189 with mild (60-89), 5,539 with moderate (30-59), and 601 with severe eGFR impairment (15-29). Lower eGFR was associated with worse baseline clinical profile and longer in-hospital delay to coronary angiography. There was a stepwise increase in the crude all-cause death rates across the groups at 1 year. The Cox regression model with a spline term revealed that the relationship between eGFR and the risk of death at 1 year was non-linear (reverse J-shaped), and the risk was the lowest in patients with eGFR∼90 mL/min/1.73 m2.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a J-curve relationship between the eGFR value and 1-year all-cause mortality in patients with NSTEMI and treated with PCI.

Impact of Stent Expansion Index on Stent Failure After Left Main Stenting

Impact of the stent expansion index (EXPI) in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for unprotected left main distal bifurcation lesions (ULMD) has been not completely understood especially in current-generation drug-eluting stent (cDES) era. We evaluated the impact of EXPI on clinical outcomes after PCI with cDES for ULMD. We identified 342 patients treated with cDES for ULMD and postintervention intravascular ultrasound between January 2010 and December 2019. In this study, the ratio of minimum stent area (MSA) to reference vessel area at the MSA site was adopted to assess the stent expansion. We defined the patients with the first and second tertile as low-intermediate EXPI group and those with the third tertile as high EXPI group and compared the clinical outcomes between both groups. The primary end point was target lesion failure (TLF). TLF was defined as a composite of cardiac death, target lesion revascularization (TLR) ,and myocardial infarction. The MSA was located in the ostium of left anterior descending coronary artery in most cases (318 of 342 patients; 93.0%). There were no significant differences between both groups in the baseline clinical, lesion, and procedural characteristics. The high EXPI group had lower TLF rate than the low-intermediate EXPI group (10.2% vs 19.9%, log-rank p = 0.033). In conclusion, this is the first report that the higher ratio of MSA to reference vessel area at the MSA site, which was defined as stent EXPI, was associated with more favorable clinical outcomes after PCI for ULMD.

Cell-free DNA as a potential biomarker for acute myocardial infarction: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Tissue necrosis releases cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (cfDNA), leading to rapid increases in plasma concentration with clearance independent of kidney function.

AIM

To explore the diagnostic role of cfDNA in acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

METHODS

This systematic review and meta-analysis included studies of cfDNA in patients with AMI and a comparator group without AMI. The quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies-2 (QUADAS-2) tool was used, with AMI determined from the criteria of the original study. Standardised mean differences (SMD) were obtained using a random-effects inverse variance model. Heterogeneity was reported as I2. Pooled sensitivity and specificity were computed using a bivariate model. The area under the curve (AUC) was estimated from a hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristics curve.

RESULTS

Seventeen studies were identified involving 1804 patients (n = 819 in the AMI group, n = 985 in the comparator group). Circulating cfDNA concentrations were greater in the AMI group (SMD 3.47 (95%CI: 2.54-4.41, p < 0.001)). The studies were of variable methodological quality with substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 98%, p < 0.001), possibly due to the differences in cfDNA quantification methodologies (Chi2 25.16, p < 0.001, I2 = 92%). Diagnostic accuracy was determined using six studies (n = 804), which yielded a sensitivity of 87% (95%CI: 72%-95%) and specificity of 96% (95%CI: 92%-98%). The AUC was 0.96 (95%CI: 0.93-0.98). Two studies reported a relationship between peak cfDNA and peak troponin. No studies reported data for patients with pre-existing kidney impairment.

CONCLUSION

Plasma cfDNA appears to be a reliable biomarker of myocardial injury. Inferences from existing results are limited owing to methodology heterogeneity.

Diabetes Mellitus with Mild or Moderate Kidney Dysfunction is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease: A Large-Scale Cohort Study

AIM

Both kidney dysfunction and diabetes mellitus (DM) predict long-term poor prognosis in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). We aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes according to the combined status of DM and different stages of kidney dysfunction in CAD patients.

METHODS

From January 2013 to December 2013, 9293 eligible patients hospitalized for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at Fuwai hospital were followed up for major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCEs), a composite of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction and stroke. Baseline kidney function was considered as stage I: normal or high kidney function; stage II: mild dysfunction and stage III: moderate dysfunction according to estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Upon baseline kidney function, diabetic and non-diabetic patients were divided into six groups.

RESULTS

During a median follow-up of 2.4 years, 326 (3.5%) MACCEs occurred. Compared to patients in the stage I/non-DM group, patients in the stage II/DM and stage III/DM groups had significantly increased MACCE risk [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR), 1.53; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.09-2.15; P = 0.014; aHR, 3.00; 95%CI, 1.74-5.18; P<0.002, respectively]. Additionally, there were J-shaped associations of eGFR with MACCE risk regardless of glycemic metabolism status after adjusted for confounders. Furthermore, moderate kidney dysfunction conferred an increased MACCE risk in diabetic patients with uncontrolled glycemia (aHR, 2.93; 95%CI, 1.48-5.78; P=0.002).

CONCLUSIONS

DM with mild or moderate kidney dysfunction is associated with poor prognosis in CAD patients. Categorical classification of patients with DM and kidney dysfunction could provide prognostic information for risk stratification of CAD patients.

Revascularization in Patients With Non-ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction and Advanced Chronic Kidney Disease

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the impact of revascularization on long-term survival and renal outcome in non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) patients with severe chronic kidney disease (CKD).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This study includes NSTEMI patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate <30 mL/min per 1.73 m², including those on chronic hemodialysis who were identified from the multicenter Chang Gung Research Database from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2017. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was used to generate comparable groups. The survival and the risk of progression to chronic hemodialysis between those receiving revascularization, either percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass graft, and those receiving medical therapy during index hospitalization were compared.

RESULTS

A total of 2821 NSTEMI patients with severe CKD, including 1141 patients on chronic hemodialysis, were identified. Of these, 1149 patients received revascularization and 1672 received medical therapies. The differences in demographics, comorbidities, and presentations between groups were balanced after inverse probability of treatment weighting. After a mean follow-up of 1.82 years, revascularization was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality (adjusted HR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.54-0.70). For non-dialysis-dependent patients who had survival to discharge, revascularization had a higher risk of progression to chronic hemodialysis (adjusted HR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.49-2.26) after a mean follow-up of 2.3 years.

CONCLUSION

Revascularization was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality in NSTEMI patients with severe CKD. For non-dialysis-dependent patients who survived to discharge, revascularization was associated with a higher risk of progression to chronic hemodialysis.

The impact of chronic kidney disease severity on clinical outcomes after current generation drug-eluting stent implantation for left main distal bifurcation lesions: the Milan and New-Tokyo registry

Objectives. The impact of chronic kidney disease (CKD) on clinical outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for unprotected left main distal bifurcation lesions (ULMD) is not fully understood in current generation drug eluting stent (cDES) era. We assessed clinical outcomes after PCI using cDES for ULMD according to CKD severity based on estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Design. We identified 720 consecutive patients who underwent PCI using cDES for ULMD at three high volume centers between January 2005 and December 2015. We divided those patients to the following five groups according to eGFR. Each group was defined as follows: no CKD (60 mL/min/1.73 m² ≤ eGFR), mild CKD (45 ≤ eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m²), moderate CKD (30 ≤ eGFR < 45 mL/min/1.73 m²), severe CKD (15 ≤ eGFR < 30 mL/min/1.73 m²) and hemodialysis (HD). The primary endpoint was target lesion failure (TLF) at 3 years. TLF was defined as a composite of cardiac death, target lesion revascularization (TLR) and myocardial infarction (MI). Results. TLF occurred more frequently in severe CKD and HD group compared with other three groups. Conclusions. The patients who have severe CKD or are on HD, were extremely associated with worse clinical outcomes after PCI for ULMD even with cDES.

Impact of Chronic Kidney Disease on In-Hospital and 3-Year Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction Treated by Contemporary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention and Optimal Medical Therapy - Insights From the J-MINUET Study

BACKGROUND

The impact of chronic kidney disease (CKD) on long-term outcomes following acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the era of modern primary PCI with optimal medical therapy is still in debate.Methods and Results:A total of 3,281 patients with AMI were enrolled in the J-MINUET registry, with primary PCI of 93.1% in STEMI. CKD stage on admission was classified into: no CKD (eGFR ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m²); moderate CKD (60>eGFR≥30 mL/min/1.73 m²); and severe CKD (eGFR <30 mL/min/1.73 m²). While the primary endpoint was all-cause mortality, the secondary endpoint was major adverse cardiac events (MACE), defined as a composite of all-cause death, cardiac failure, myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. Of the 3,281 patients, 1,878 had no CKD, 1,073 had moderate CKD and 330 had severe CKD. Pre-person-days age- and sex-adjusted in-hospital mortality significantly increased from 0.014% in no CKD through 0.042% in moderate CKD to 0.084% in severe CKD (P<0.0001). Three-year mortality and MACE significantly deteriorated from 5.09% and 15.8% in no CKD through 16.3% and 38.2% in moderate CKD to 36.7% and 57.9% in severe CKD, respectively (P<0.0001). C-index significantly increased from the basic model of 0.815 (0.788-0.841) to 0.831 (0.806-0.857), as well as 0.731 (0.708-0.755) to 0.740 (0.717-0.764) when adding CKD stage to the basic model in predicting 3-year mortality (P=0.013; net reclassification improvement [NRI] 0.486, P<0.0001) and MACE (P=0.046; NRI 0.331, P<0.0001) respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

CKD remains a useful predictor of in-hospital and 3-year mortality as well as MACE after AMI in the modern PCI and optimal medical therapy era.

In-hospital outcomes after percutaneous coronary interventions in cardiac allograft recipients

Introduction

The average age and survival of heart transplant recipients have improved significantly over the last 10 years. In these long-term survivors, coronary allograft vasculopathy is one of the most common causes of death. There is a paucity of large-data research highlighting the short-term outcomes of percutaneous coronary interventions in cardiac allograft recipients.

Methods

We compared the in-hospital outcomes of heart transplant recipient and non-transplant recipients following percutaneous coronary intervention using data from the National inpatient sample (NIS). All adult patients (age ⩾ 18 years) who had percutaneous coronary intervention in the index admissions from January of 2005 to December of 2014 were included in the analysis. They were then divided into two groups based on their heart transplant status. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes were stroke, cardiac arrest, duration of hospitalization, and total hospital charges. Logistic regression models were used to compare in-hospital outcomes between the two groups.

Results

Of 1,316,528 patients who had percutaneous coronary intervention, 618 (0.05%) were heart transplant recipients and 1,315,910 (99.95%) were not. The heart transplant recipient group was significantly younger with lower rates of obesity and peripheral vascular disease but higher rate of chronic kidney disease, iron deficiency anemia, and chronic liver disease. There was significantly higher in-hospital mortality in transplant recipients below 65 years of age (adjusted odds ration = 2.3, p value < 0.0001). Subjects in the heart transplant recipient group also had longer hospital stays (p value = 0.002).

Conclusion

Heart transplant recipients younger than 65 years had higher in-hospital mortality. Subjects in the heart transplant recipient group were also younger and had longer duration of hospitalization than the non-transplant cohorts.

Value of the high-sensitivity troponin T assay for diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction in patients with and without renal insufficiency

BACKGROUND

Cardiac troponins are important markers for diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in general population; however, chronically-elevated troponins levels are often seen in patients with renal insufficiency, which reduce their diagnostic accuracy. The aim of our study was to access the diagnostic values of initial high-sensitive cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and relative change of hs-cTnT for AMI in patients with and without renal insufficiency.

METHODS

Cardiac care unit patients with elevated hs-cTnT levels in 2017-2018 were enrolled. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate initial hs-cTnT levels and relative changes after 3 h of enrollment for diagnosis of AMI in patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 mL/min/1.73 m² (low), and eGFR ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m² (normal).

RESULTS

Of 359 patients, 240 patients had low eGFR, and 119 patients had normal eGFR. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) for the initial hs-cTnT levels was 0.58 (95% CI, 0.5-0.65, p = 0.053) among patients with low eGFR and 0.54 (95% CI, 0.4-0.67, p = 0.612) among patients with normal eGFR. AUCs for relative changes of hs-cTnT were 0.82 (95% CI, 0.76-0.88, p < 0.001) in patients with low eGFR and 0.82 (95% CI, 0.71-0.91, p < 0.001) in patients with normal eGFR. Optimal cutoff values for the relative changes in hs-cTnT were 16% and 12% in patients with low eGFR and normal eGFR, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Relative changes in hs-cTnT levels had better diagnostic accuracy than initial hs-cTnT levels.

The Impact of Diabetes Mellitus on Clinical Outcomes after Percutaneous Coronary Intervention with Drug-Eluting Stents for Left Main Distal Bifurcation Lesions in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

BACKGROUND

The impact of diabetes mellitus (DM) on clinical outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for unprotected left main (ULM) distal bifurcation lesions in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is poorly understood in the era of drug-eluting stents (DESs).

OBJECTIVE

We assessed the impact of DM on clinical outcomes after PCI for ULM distal bifurcation lesions in CKD patients compared to patients without DM.

METHODS

We identified 1,832 consecutive patients who underwent PCI for ULM lesions at New Tokyo Hospital, Matsudo, Japan, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, and EMO-GVM, Centro Cuore Columbus, Milan, Italy between January 2005 and August 2015. Of the 1,832 patients, 1,391 were treated with DESs. We excluded 750 patients without CKD and 89 hemodialysis patients. Finally, 552 patients with CKD were included: 219 with DM (DM group) and 333 without DM (no DM group). The primary endpoint was target lesion failure (TLF) at 5 years. TLF was defined as a composite of cardiac death, target lesion revascularization (TLR), and myocardial infarction.

RESULTS

Patients in the DM group were more likely to have hypertension, dyslipidemia, peripheral artery disease, and lower ejection fraction and were more frequently using insulin for DM. The TLF rate during the follow-up period was significantly higher in the DM than in the no DM group (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.50; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06-2.13; p = 0.023). Cardiac mortality was comparable between both groups (adjusted HR 1.11; 95% CI 0.63-1.95; p = 0.71). The TLR rate was significantly higher in the DM group than in the no DM group (adjusted HR 1.69; 95% CI 1.12-2.54; p = 0.012).

CONCLUSION

DM is strongly associated with adverse event after PCI for ULM distal bifurcation lesions in CKD patients compared to those without DM.