Assessment of coronary artery flow velocity pattern as a long-term predictor of left ventricular function and cardiac events after percutaneous coronary intervention in anterior acute myocardial infarction

Clinical significance of early systolic reverse flow in left anterior descending coronary artery on transthoracic echocardiography in patients with acute myocardial infarction

BACKGROUND

Predicting the cardiac function in chronic phase of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients is important. Previous studies showed that the presence of early systolic reverse flow (ESRF) in coronary flow measured with a Doppler guide wire is a predictor of worsening chronic phase function in patients with anterior AMI. We routinely examined the coronary flow velocity (CFV) of the distal left anterior descending artery (LAD) using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) in AMI patients. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the ESRF in TTE is associated with the chronic cardiac function, recovery of cardiac function, and the incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in patients with anterior AMI.

METHODS

We enrolled 84 patients with their first anterior AMI. Using TTE, we recorded the CFV of distal LAD within 5 days after primary percutaneous coronary intervention. Patients were divided into two groups, ESRF + group (ESRF was detected in TTE: 21 cases) and ESRF- group (ESRF was not detected in TTE: 63 cases). We compared chronic cardiac function in TTE, changes in cardiac function in acute and chronic phase (ΔLVEF, ΔLVDd), and the incidence of MACE.

RESULTS

The incidence of MACE in ESRF-group was lower than that in ESRF + group (3.3% vs 19.1% P = .02). LVEF in chronic phase in ESRF- group was higher than that in ESRF + group (54.1 ± 5.6% vs 40.4 ± 6.2% P < .001). ΔLVDd was smaller in ESRF-group than ESRF + group (-0.62 ± 4.0 mm vs +5.06 ± 3.4 mm P = .003).

CONCLUSION

Early systolic reverse flow in TTE is a predictor of chronic cardiac function and incidence of MACE in patients with anterior AMI.

An analysis of patients receiving emergency CAG without PCI and the value of GRACE score in predicting PCI possibilities in NSTE-ACS patients

Background

There are patients who underwent emergency coronary angiography (CAG) but did not receive percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The aim of this study was to analyze these reasons.

Methods

This is a single-center retrospective study. We recruited 201 consecutive patients who received emergency CAG but did not receive PCI. To investigate the value of the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) score in predicting PCI possibilities in non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS) patients, we recruited 80 consecutive patients who presented with NSTE-ACS and received emergency CAG as well as emergency PCI.

Results

Among the 201 patients who received emergency CAG but did not receive PCI, 26% patients had final diagnosis other than coronary heart disease. In the patients with significant coronary artery stenosis, 23 patients (11.5%) were recommended to coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), one patient (0.5%) refused PCI; 13 patients (6.5%) with significant thrombus burden were treated with glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonist; 74 patients (36.8%) were treated with drug therapy because no severe stenosis (> 70%) was present in the crime vessel. Moreover, 80 of the 201 patients were presented with NSTE-ACS (excluding those patients with final diagnosis other than coronary heart disease, excluding those patients planned for CABG treatment), referred as non PCI NSTE-ACS. When comparing their GRACE scores with 80 consecutive patients presented with NSTE-ACS who received emergency CAG as well as emergency PCI (referred as PCI NSTE-ACS), we found that PCI NSTE-ACS patients had significantly higher GRACE scores compared with non PCI NSTE-ACS patients. We then used Receiver Operator Characteristic Curve (ROC) to test whether the GRACE score is good at evaluating the possibilities of PCI in NSTE-ACS patients. The area under the curve was 0.854 ± 0.030 (P < 0.001), indicating good predictive value. Furthermore, we analyzed results derived from ROC statistics, and found that a GRACE score of 125.5, as a cut-off, has high sensitivity and specificity in evaluating PCI possibilities in NSTE-ACS patients.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that the GRACE score has predictive value in determining whether NSTE-ACS patients would receive PCI.