Drug Eluting Stent vs. Drug Coated Balloon for Native Femoropopliteal Artery Disease: A Two Centre Experience

Management and Pharmacological Treatment of Peripheral Arterial Disease

Background: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a complex, heterogeneous condition that has become a leading health concern globally. Peripheral arterial disease often co-exists with other vascular disease states, including cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease. Optimal therapy for managing symptoms and progression of disease employs non-pharmacological, pharmacological, and contemporary revascularisation techniques to improve clinical outcomes and quality of life. However, large well-designed randomised control trials (RCT) and corresponding evidence-based guidelines for management of PAD are lacking, with current practice standards often extrapolated from evidence in coronary artery disease.Purpose: This review article aims to discuss currently accepted best pharmacological practice for PAD.Method: Relevant articles were searched between May 2023 and January 2024 through PubMed, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar and international guidelines, focusing on pharmacological management for PAD.Results: This narrative review discusses holistic pharmacological treatments for PAD.

Comparison of the Pre-Established and Finally Selected Treatment Strategies for Endovascular Treatment in Femoropopliteal Artery Lesions

This study aimed to compare lower limb events associated with preplanned and finally selected treatment strategies-the validity and usefulness of the physician-chosen strategy were verified.We examined the data of 1003 patients in the registry of multicenter endovascular treatment for superficial femoral and popliteal artery disease study and prospectively enrolled patients who underwent endovascular treatment (EVT) of the femoropopliteal (FP) artery between February 2017 and June 2018 from 67 Japanese institutes. The outcome measures were major adverse limb events (MALE) and target vessel revascularization.The EVT strategies were classified into balloon angioplasty-alone (37.3%), primary stenting (26.7%), and provisional stenting (36.0%) groups. In the initial strategy analysis for the balloon angioplasty-alone, primary stenting, and provisional stenting groups, two-year rates of freedom from MALE (95% confidence interval) were 0.680 (0.620-0.732), 0.754 (0.688-0.808), and 0.798 (0.746-0.840), respectively. Additionally, the rate of MALE was significantly higher among patients in the balloon angioplasty-alone group than among those in the primary or provisional stenting groups in the initial strategy analysis (P = 0.007). Changes in treatment strategy were more frequent in the primary stenting group than in the other groups. Furthermore, the rate of MALE did not significantly differ among the three groups in the final strategy analysis (P = 0.56).Limb outcomes for the final applied strategy did not differ among the three strategies. Additionally, the physician's selection bias was mostly appropriate in the EVT of the FP artery.

Meta-analysis of outcomes from drug-eluting stent implantation in infrapopliteal arteries

BACKGROUND

Percutaneous drug-eluting stent implantation (DESI) is an emerging and promising treatment modality for infrapopliteal artery diseases (IPADs). This systematic review and meta-analysis summarizes and quantitatively analyzes the outcomes of DESI in IPADs considering the hazard ratio (HR), which is a more accurate and appropriate outcome measure than the more commonly used relative risk and odds ratio.

AIM

To explore the superiority of drug-eluting stents (DESs) vs traditional treatment modalities for IPADs.

METHODS

The following postoperative indicators were the outcomes of interest: All-cause death (ACD)-free survival, major amputation (MA)-free survival, target lesion revascularization (TLR)-free survival, adverse event (AE)-free survival, and primary patency (PP) survival. The outcome measures were then compared according to their respective HRs with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The participants were human IPAD patients who underwent treatments for infrapopliteal lesions. DESI was set as the intervention arm, and traditional percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) with or without bare metal stent implantation (BMSI) was set as the control arm. A systematic search in the Excerpta Medica Database (Embase), PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library was performed on November 29, 2022. All controlled studies published in English with sufficient data on outcomes of interest for extraction or conversion were included. When studies did not directly report the HRs but gave a corresponding survival curve, we utilized Engauge Digitizer software and standard formulas to convert the information and derive HRs. Then, meta-analyses were conducted using a random-effects model.

RESULTS

Five randomized controlled trials and three cohort studies involving 2639 participants were included. The ACD-free and MA-free survival HR values for DESI were not statistically significant from those of the control treatment (P > 0.05); however, the HR values for TLR-free, AE-free, and PP-survival differed significantly [2.65 (95%CI: 1.56-4.50), 1.57 (95%CI: 1.23-2.01), and 5.67 (95%CI: 3.56-9.03), respectively].

CONCLUSION

Compared with traditional treatment modalities (i.e., PTA with or without BMSI), DESI for IPADs is superior in avoiding TLR and AEs and maintaining PP but shows no superiority or inferiority in avoiding ACD and MA.

Meta-analysis of outcomes from drug-eluting stent implantation in infrapopliteal arteries

BACKGROUND

Percutaneous drug-eluting stent implantation (DESI) is an emerging and promising treatment modality for infrapopliteal artery diseases (IPADs). This systematic review and meta-analysis summarizes and quantitatively analyzes the outcomes of DESI in IPADs considering the hazard ratio (HR), which is a more accurate and appropriate outcome measure than the more commonly used relative risk and odds ratio.

AIM

To explore the superiority of drug-eluting stents (DESs) vs traditional treatment modalities for IPADs.

METHODS

The following postoperative indicators were the outcomes of interest: All-cause death (ACD)-free survival, major amputation (MA)-free survival, target lesion revascularization (TLR)-free survival, adverse event (AE)-free survival, and primary patency (PP) survival. The outcome measures were then compared according to their respective HRs with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The participants were human IPAD patients who underwent treatments for infrapopliteal lesions. DESI was set as the intervention arm, and traditional percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) with or without bare metal stent implantation (BMSI) was set as the control arm. A systematic search in the Excerpta Medica Database (Embase), PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library was performed on November 29, 2022. All controlled studies published in English with sufficient data on outcomes of interest for extraction or conversion were included. When studies did not directly report the HRs but gave a corresponding survival curve, we utilized Engauge Digitizer software and standard formulas to convert the information and derive HRs. Then, meta-analyses were conducted using a random-effects model.

RESULTS

Five randomized controlled trials and three cohort studies involving 2639 participants were included. The ACD-free and MA-free survival HR values for DESI were not statistically significant from those of the control treatment (P > 0.05); however, the HR values for TLR-free, AE-free, and PP-survival differed significantly [2.65 (95%CI: 1.56-4.50), 1.57 (95%CI: 1.23-2.01), and 5.67 (95%CI: 3.56-9.03), respectively].

CONCLUSION

Compared with traditional treatment modalities (i.e., PTA with or without BMSI), DESI for IPADs is superior in avoiding TLR and AEs and maintaining PP but shows no superiority or inferiority in avoiding ACD and MA.

Device Effectiveness for Femoropopliteal Artery Disease Treatment: An Analysis of K-VIS ELLA Registry

BACKGROUND

Although drug-coated balloons (DCBs) and drug-eluting stents (DES) are frequently used for the treatment of femoropopliteal artery (FPA) disease, their mid- or long-term clinical efficacy in real-world practice is still limited.

OBJECTIVES

From the K-VIS ELLA (Korean Vascular Intervention Society Endovascular Therapy in Lower Limb Artery Diseases) multicenter registry cohort, clinical outcomes of drug-eluting devices for FPA lesions in comparison with bare-metal stents (BMS) were evaluated.

METHODS

Limbs that underwent percutaneous transluminal angioplasty for FPA lesions with plain old balloon angioplasty (POBA, n = 826), BMS (n = 943), DCBs (n = 778), or DES (n = 227) between 2012 and 2020 were included. The primary outcome was target lesion revascularization (TLR) at 2 years. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was used to account for confounding.

RESULTS

After inverse probability of treatment weighting, baseline characteristics were well-balanced among groups. Compared with the 2-year cumulative incidence of TLR with BMS (26.5%), the incidence of TLR was significantly lower in limbs treated with DCBs (15.9%; HR: 0.44; 95% CI: 0.30-0.64; P < 0.001) or DES (15.9%; HR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.29-0.87; P = 0.014). No significant differences were observed in the risk of TLR between DCBs vs DES (HR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.51-1.49; P = 0.613) and POBA vs BMS (HR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.73-1.21; P = 0.626). All-cause mortality was comparable in the 4 groups. Treatment with DCBs showed a more pronounced favorable outcome in limbs with Trans-Atlantic Inter-Society Consensus II type C/D lesions or long lesions (≥150 mm) compared with POBA, BMS, or DES (P_interaction< 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

In real-world practice, DCBs and DES demonstrated comparably superior midterm outcomes over POBA or BMS in the treatment of FPA lesions.

Drug-Coated Balloon versus Drug-Eluting Stent: The Debate of Leave Nothing Behind

Endovascular techniques for peripheral artery disease have changed significantly in the past 10 years with advances in technology and data. Treatment of superficial femoral disease is complex secondary to the length, degree of calcification, high rate of chronic total occlusion, and areas of flexion within this vessel. Use of drug-coated devices has increased the interventionalist's toolbox with the objective to improve freedom from target lesion revascularization and primary patency. There remains debate as to which devices may reach these goals while also limiting overall morbidity and mortality. This article aims to highlight recent advances in the literature regarding the use of drug-coated devices.

Comparing the impact of the loss of patency between treatment with drug-coated balloon angioplasty and drug-eluting stent placement

OBJECTIVE

To compare the results of endovascular treatment with drug-eluting stents (DES) and drug-coated balloons (DCB) in atherosclerotic lesions in the femoropopliteal artery, as well as to assess restenotic patterns.

METHODS

Clinical data from 617 cases treated with DES or DCB for femoropopliteal diseases were analyzed in this multicenter, retrospective cohort study. From these, 290 DES and 145 DCB cases were extracted by propensity score matching. Outcomes investigated were 1- and 2-year primary patency, reintervention, and restenotic pattern and its impact on symptoms in each group.

RESULTS

The primary patency rates at 1 and 2 years in the DES group were superior to those in the DCB group (84.8% and 71.1% vs 81.3% and 66.6%, P = .043), whereas there was no significant difference in freedom from target lesion revascularization (91.6% and 82.6% vs 88.3% and 78.8%, P = .13). Compared with what was measured before the index procedures, exacerbated symptoms, rate of occlusion, and an increase in the occluded length at loss of patency were more frequent in the DES group than in the DCB group. The odds ratios were 3.53 (95% confidence interval, 1.31-9.49; P = .012), 3.61 (1.09-11.9; P = .036), and 3.82 (1.15-12.7; P = .029), respectively. On the other hand, the frequency of an increase in lesion length and requirement of target lesion revascularization were similar between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Primary patency was significantly higher at 1 and 2 years in the DES than in the DCB group. However, DES were associated with exacerbated clinical symptoms and complicated lesion characteristics at the point of loss of patency.

Primary Drug-Coated Balloon Versus Drug-Eluting Stent for Native Atherosclerotic Femoropopliteal Lesions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to compare drug-coated balloon (DCB) to drug-eluting stent (DES) angioplasty as a primary option in patients with femoropopliteal lesions in terms of primary patency and freedom from clinically driven target lesion revascularization (cdTLR) and major adverse limb events (MALE).

METHODS

A comprehensive literature search was performed using the PubMed and Embase databases. All studies written in English language and reporting data presenting a comparison between patients receiving primary percutaneous balloon angioplasty using the DCB versus primary percutaneous stenting with DES for native femoropopliteal lesions were included in this meta-analysis.

RESULTS

There were 984 patients with 1,078 femoropopliteal lesions, of which procedures with DCB and DES were performed in 514 and 564 lesions, respectively. Overall, majority patients were men with a mean age of 70.9 years, and there were no significant differences between the 2 groups regarding the cardiovascular comorbidities. With regards to the procedural strategy, there was significant heterogeneity in the DCB group. This included adjunctive procedures such as atherectomy besides the angioplasty of the target vessel, which was reported in 1 study as a part of 32.1% of the procedures in the DCB group. Provisional bare metal stents (pBMS) for residual stenosis and dissection were used in 4 studies with a percentage varying from 14.8 to 25.3%. Overall, at 1 year, all outcomes were similar for all the end points; however, where adjunctive procedures were performed (atherectomy + pBMS) in the DCB group, the outcomes were better (primary patency p.001, freedom cdTLR p.001, and freedom form MALE p.002). In studies where no adjunctive procedures were performed in the DCB group, the results favored the DES group for the primary patency (p.026) and freedom from cdTLR (p.044).

CONCLUSIONS

DES seems to be superior in terms of cdTLR and primary patency at 1 year when compared to the procedures performed solely with DCB. For DCB to achieve optimal results, further adjunctive procedures such as pBMS and atherectomy are needed. More studies are needed to confirm the superiority of the primary stenting with DES at the femoropopliteal segment.

Real-world outcomes of Cook Zilver PTX in femoro-popliteal district from multicenter experience

BACKGROUND

The purpose is to evaluate the follow-up outcomes after femoro-popliteal stenting with Cook Zilver PTX in a multicenter experience.

METHODS

Collected data from four Units were retrospectively joined and analyzed considering Zilver PTX deployed from August 2009 according to the instruction for use. Patient demographics, preoperative comorbidities, Rutherford classification, arterial characteristics and stent data were considered. Target lesion revascularization (TLR) was defined as reintervention performed for ≥50% diameter stenosis after recurrent clinical symptoms. Primary outcome was the freedom from TLR (ffTLR) and its risk factors. Secondary outcomes were primary patency (PP) of the stent, amputation-free survival (AFS) and their risk factors.

RESULTS

Considering 203 patients (mean age: 73.5 years ±10.6; male: 66.5%) and 263 stents (median 2 stents/patient, range 1-5stent/patient), chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) affected 154 patients (75.9%). The length of the treated lesion was <120 mm in 99 (48.8%), ≥120 mm and <200 mm in 65 (32%) and ≥200 mm in 39 (19.2%) cases, respectively; the reference vessel mean diameter was 5.5±0.7 mm; chronic total occlusion was treated in 153 (75.4%) patients, the popliteal artery was involved in 56 (27.6%) cases and prior endovascular intervention was performed in 27 (13.3%) cases. Two or more crural run-off vessels were patent in 124 (61.1%). Mean follow-up was 23.2 months ±21.3. At 1, 2 and 3 years, the ffTLR was 90.6±4.2%, 86.4±6.1% and 80.4±8.3%, respectively, and the PP was 85.6±5.0%, 74.2±7.6% and 72.7±8.2%, respectively. Negative prognostic factor for ffTLR and PP was the reference vessel diameter (P=0.001 and P<0.001, respectively). At 1, 2 and 3 years, the AFS was 81.8±6.0%, 75.5±7.1% and 74.2±7.5% respectively; coronary artery disease (P=0.041) and CLTI (P=0.011) resulted negative prognostic factors.

CONCLUSIONS

In the real-world practice, around 3/4 of patients were treated for CLTI. The rate of ffTLR is high, and PP is substantially lower. A small vessel diameter (<5 mm) is a negative factor for both ffTLR and PP. The rate of AFS is about 75% at 2 years and CLTI and coronary artery disease are negative prognostic factors.

First peripheral drug-eluting stent clinical results from China: 1-year outcomes of the Zilver PTX China study

Purpose

The benefit of using the Zilver PTX drug-eluting stent (DES) in superficial femoral artery (SFA) lesions has been demonstrated in multiple clinical studies. This prospective, multicenter study evaluated the 1-year safety and effectiveness of the DES for the treatment of femoropopliteal lesions in a Chinese patient population.

Methods

Patients with a single de novo or restenotic SFA lesion ≤140 mm and a Rutherford classification of 2 to 4 were treated with the DES. The primary endpoint was primary patency assessed by duplex ultrasound at 1-year. Secondary endpoints included adverse events, event-free survival (EFS), and freedom from target lesion revascularization (TLR). Clinical outcomes included Rutherford classification, ankle-brachial index (ABI), and the walking impairment questionnaire (WIQ).

Results

In this study, 178 patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease were enrolled at nine institutions in China. The average lesion length was 79.0 ± 48.6 mm (range 14.8–245.4 mm) and 50.0% of lesions were total occlusions. The 1-year primary patency rate was 81.9%. Covariate analysis revealed that lesion length (p < 0.01) was the only significant factor for patency. No paclitaxel-related adverse events or amputations were reported. The 1-year rate for EFS was 94.9% and freedom from TLR was 95.5%. Through 1-year, treatment with the DES resulted in statistically significant improvement in ABI and WIQ scores compared with pre-procedure (p < 0.001). Clinical improvement of at least 1 Rutherford class was achieved in 142 of 174 patients (81.6%).

Conclusion

This study showed promising short-term results for the treatment of SFA lesions with Zilver PTX DES in Chinese patients.

Unique identifier

ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT02171962.

Drug-Coated Balloon Versus Drug-Eluting Stent in Patients With Femoropopliteal Artery Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to compare drug-coated balloon (DCB) to drug-eluting stent (DES) in patients with femoropopliteal lesions in terms of restenosis, target lesion revascularization (TLR), and mortality.

METHODS

A comprehensive literature search was performed through PubMed, Scopus, and Embase databases. The intervention group was patients receiving percutaneous balloon angioplasty using the DCB. The control group was patients receiving percutaneous intervention using the DES. The primary outcome was restenosis, and the secondary outcomes were TLR and mortality.

RESULTS

There were 4 studies comprising 812 patients (906 lesions) included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. The rate of restenosis was .19 [.13, .26] in DCB and .24 [.20, .28] in DES. There was a trend toward lower rate of restenosis (OR .73 [.52, 1.03], P = .074; I²: 46.3%) for DCB use compared to DES use. The rate of TLR was .11 [.08, .14] in DCB and .17 [.14, .21] in DES. TLR was lower (OR .61 [.41, .92], P = .017; I²: 1.2%) in the DCB group compared to the DES group. There were no significant differences in mortality (OR 1.38 [.78, 2.44], P = .268; I²: 0%) among the two groups. Meta-regression analysis showed that the rate of restenosis in DCB in this pooled analysis was affected by sex (reference: male, coefficient -.004, P = .009), smoking (coefficient: .003, P = .010), and total occlusion (coefficient: .008, P = .004).

CONCLUSION

DCB use in patients with femoropopliteal lesion was associated with similar rate of restenosis, lower TLR, and similar mortality rate compared to DES use.