Impact of stent length and diameter on short term clinical outcomes of drug eluting stents in patients with stable coronary artery disease

Primary percutaneous coronary intervention in CAD patients: A comparison of major adverse cardiovascular events of second- and third-generation drug-eluting stents

Background: Biodegradable polymer (BP) drug-eluting stents (DES) have been introduced as a novel solution to the problems of durable polymer (DP) stents. In Pakistan, very few studies are available for the treatment intervention in post-primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) patients. Our study will compare the major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) and their predictors in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing PPCI with second- or third-generation DES. Methodology: An observational, retrospective, cohort study was carried out on CAD patients undergoing PPCI with either second- (DP-XIENCE Prime/XIENCE Xpedition) or third-generation (BP-BioMatrix NeoFlex/BioMatrix Alpha) DES. MACEs were assessed after 1 year of PPCI procedure in 341 patients and screened as per inclusion/exclusion criteria (167 in the second-generation group and 174 in the third-generation group). Results: The number of male patients (86.2%) was more than female patients in our study population. MACEs were reported in 4.19% patients after 1 year duration, and the percentage of MACEs was more in the second-generation DES group (4.77%) than in the third-generation group (3.44%); however, statistical analysis has not found any significant difference (p = 0.534). The rate of myocardial infarction (1.19% vs. 0.57%) and stent thrombosis (1.8% vs. 1.15%) was more in the second-generation DES group. However, restenosis (1.19% vs. 1.15%) and cardiac death (0.59% vs. 0.57%) were almost same in both groups. A significant association was found between MACEs and diabetes mellitus (p = 0.025), hypertension (p = 0.035), smoking (p = 0.008), and a family history of CAD (p = 0.018). Conclusion: BP-BioMatrix and DP-XIENCE DES have comparable clinical outcomes. Findings of the current study will assist the policy makers and healthcare providers in the rationalization of scarce resources and evidence-based patient care. However, longer follow-up studies are required for convincing results.

Hemodynamic Impact of Stenting on Carotid Bifurcation: A Potential Role of the Stented Segment and External Carotid Artery

Carotid stenting near the bifurcation carina is associated with adverse events, especially in-stent restenosis, thrombosis, and side branch occlusion in clinical data. This study is aimed at determining the potential biomechanical mechanisms for these adverse events after carotid stenting. The patient-specific carotid models were constructed with different stenting scenarios to study the flow distribution and hemodynamic parameters, such as wall shear stress (WSS), flow velocity, relative residence time (RRT), and oscillating shear index (OSI) in the carotid bifurcation. The results suggested that the existing stents surely reduced blood flow to the external carotid artery (ECA) but enhanced local flow disturbance both in ECA and stented internal carotid artery (ICA), and the inner posterior wall of the stented ICA and the outer posterior wall of ECA might endure a relatively low level of WSS and remarkably elevated OSI and RRT. In addition, the implanted stent leads to more ECA adverse flow than ICA after stenting. While disturbed flow near the strut increased as stent length increased, blood flow and areas of local flow disturbance in ECA slightly decreased as stent length increased. In conclusion, the results revealed that ECA might be in relatively high levels of abnormal local hemodynamics after stenting, followed by stented ICA, leading to potential adverse events after intervention.

The Effect of Clinical Characteristics and Stent Parameters on Left Ventricular Mechanical Dyssynchrony

Aim. To study short term effect of stent size and number on left ventricular mechanical dyssynchrony after elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to left anterior descending (LAD) artery.

Materials and methods. the study included 150 adult patients with LAD lesion treated with PCI using drug-eluting stent. Patients were evaluated pre PCI then 1 month and 3 months post PCI for evaluation of mechanical dyssynchrony using tissue synchronization image (TSI).

Results. Before revascularization mean left ventricular ejection fraction was 51.2±5.7 %, mean time to peak TSI was 213.6±10.9 ms; 1 month after PCI TSI improved significantly to 163.7±17.6 ms (p<0.001), 3 months after PCI showed more improvement to 120.7±26.9 ms (p<0.001). After 3m; 61 patients (40.7%) showed recovery to normal TSI value. The predictors of non-improvement of time to peak TSI after 3 months were diabetes mellitus (p=0.007), dyslipidemia (p=0.001) and stent length (p=0.001), number of stents (p=0.004). There were strong negative correlation between stent length and improvement of the time to peak TSI at 1 month (r=-0.352, p<0.001) and at 3 months (r=-0.509, p<0.001),and also with number of stent at 1 month (r= -0.173, p=0.034) and at 3 months (r=-0.499, p<0.001), but the correlation between stent diameter and improvement of the TSI wasn’t significant neither at 1 month nor at 3 months (r=0.055, p=0.504 and r= -0.018, p=0.827) respectively.

Conclusion. Increased number and length of the implanted stents were predictors to non-improvement of mechanical dyssynchrony, while stent diameter didn’t affects the recovery.

Determination of high sensitive cardiac troponin I 99th percentile upper reference limits in a healthy Pakistani population

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to establish the 99^th percentile upper reference limits of high sensitive cardiac troponin I in a healthy Pakistani population.

METHODS

It was an Observational cohort study carried out in Department of Chemical Pathology and Endocrinology Rehman Medical Institute Peshawar, over the period of one year (January 2019- December 2019). Total 299 cardio-healthy males and females were interviewed and taken past medical history. Based on history, clinical examination, echocardiogram and laboratory data including results of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and N-terminal pro-B-type natriureteric peptide (NT-proBNP), subjects with possible subclinical diseases were excluded. High Sensitive Cardiac Troponin I (hs-cTtrop I) was analysed on Abbot ARCHITECT STAT ci8200 using chemiluminescent immunoassay technique. The 99th percentile upper reference limit (URL) of hs-cTtrop I was determined using a non-parametric statistic, while gender specific results were compared.

RESULTS

In this study, 178 males (59.5%) and 121 females (40.5%) were included. The median Interquartile ranges (IQR) of age was 57 (11.6) for males and 56 (13) for females. The 99th percentile URL hs-cTtrop I was found to be 33.9 ng/L, while gender specific values were 38.41ng/L and 15.73ng/L for males and females, respectively (p= 0.0045).

CONCLUSION

High sensitivity cardiac troponin I 99th percentile URL in our study population was found to be 33.9 ng/L with gender specific values being 38.41 ng/L and 15.73ng/L for males and females respectively. Troponin I in males was substantially high in comparison with females.

Procedural safety and outcome of ultrathin strut stents (<60 μm) in the management of very long coronary artery stenosis (>30 mm) - A retrospective real world study

BACKGROUND

The ultrathin strut stents (<60 μm) are new in the current stents technology. This technology has assured to have less stent thrombosis, restenosis and better deliverability. Still there is lacking data of using long ultrathin strut stents in very long segment coronary artery disease (>30 mm).

AIM

The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the procedural safety and outcome of using ultrathin strut stents in very long segment coronary artery lesion.

METHODS

In this retrospective analysis, we have enrolled those patients who had an implant of more than 30 mm length of ultrathin strut stents (Evermine 50^TM and Tetrilimus stents) in real world patients as per physician discretion. Here, we enrolled 156 patients which included both acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and stable ischemic heart disease (SIHD). The endpoint of this study was to evaluate the immediate procedural success and short to intermediate term follow-up of all-cause mortality and clinically driven target lesion revascularization.

RESULTS

Out of these 156 patients (mean age- 61.2 +/- 10.4 years; male: 114), in 12 patients, these long stents couldn't be delivered. In rest 144 patients, 147 ultrathin strut stents were implanted. In about 56% patients were hypertensive and 48% patients were diabetic. About 63% patients had ACS and rest 37% patients had SIHD. The mean duration of follow up was 8.4 +/- 13.9 months. Average stent length and diameter were 39.5 +/- 5.9 mm and 3.03 +/- 0.4 mm, respectively. There was no acute or sub-acute stent thrombosis and no procedural complication. Five patients died during follow-up (all-cause mortality) and rest are all symptoms free. There were no statistical significant differences seen among the stent types.

CONCLUSION

Ultrathin strut stents can be considered for stenting in long segment coronary artery stenosis with reasonably good procedural success rate and have good clinical outcome, but needs further large randomized trial before using in this particular clinical condition. Both the stent designs have similar clinical outcome and procedural success.

Acute, in-Hospital Outcome of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for In-Stent Chronic Total Occlusion

BACKGROUND

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of total chronic total occlusion (CTO) still remains a major challenge in interventional cardiology. Recanalization of in-stent CTO (IS-CTO) is associated with inferior success rates. This present study aims to comparatively evaluate the acute outcome of patients with IS-CTO and de novo CTO.

METHODS

Between 2012 and 2018 we included 600 patients. Antegrade and retrograde CTO-PCI techniques were used and the primary endpoint was a composite safety endpoint comprising in-hospital death, vascular complications, cardiac tamponade, stroke and acute myocardial infarction.

RESULTS

IS-CTO predominantly occurred in the right coronary artery (71.2%). The success (p = 0.495) and complication rates (p = 0.255) were independent of the target vessel. The lesion lengths of IS-CTO were longer than in de-novo CTO (40 mm vs. 30 mm, statistical trend p = 0.081) alongside with the implanted stent lengths (76 mm vs. 63 mm, statistical trend p = 0.070) and their diameter (3.5 mm vs. 3.0 mm, p < 0.001). We determined that procedural and fluoroscopy time were longer in patients with IS-CTO (115.0 min vs. 93.0 min, p = 0.018 and 40.0 min vs. 30.0 min, p = 0.040) and that in this group of patients the amount of contrast medium was higher (250 ml vs. 200 ml, p = 0.015). Overall success rates were comparable between the two group of patients (87.9% vs. 84.4%, p = 0.586). In-hospital, acute procedural complications regarding the composite safety were rare and showed no statistically significant difference (3.0% vs. 5.6%; p = 0.563).

CONCLUSIONS

Recanalization of in-stent CTO lesions go along with long procedural and high fluoroscopy times as well as an increased amount of contrast medium. Compared to de novo CTO they can be performed safe in experienced hands with similar success rates.