PCI in Patients With Heart Failure: Current Evidence, Impact of Complete Revascularization, and Contemporary Techniques to Improve Outcomes

Characteristics and Outcomes of Older Patients Undergoing Protected Percutaneous Coronary Intervention With Impella

BACKGROUND

In patients undergoing high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention, Impella has become an important adjunctive tool to support revascularization. The impact of age on the outcomes of patients undergoing high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention is limited. The aim of this study is to describe the characteristics and outcomes of patients ≥75 years of age undergoing Impella-supported high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Baseline characteristics and outcomes of patients ≥75 years of age versus those of patients <75 years of age in patients enrolled in the cVAD PROTECT III (Catheter-Based Ventricular Assist Device Prospective, Multi-Center, Randomized Controlled Trial of the IMPELLA RECOVER LP 2.5 System Versus Intra Aortic Balloon Pump in Patients Undergoing Non Emergent High Risk Percutaneous Coronary Intervention) study (NCT04136392). Major adverse cardiovascular and cerebral events (composite of all-cause death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, stroke/transient ischemic attack, and repeat revascularization) were assessed at 30 and 90 days and all-cause death at 1 year. Out of 1237 patients, 493 (39.9%) patients were ≥75 years of age. Patients ≥75 years of age had less diabetes and prior myocardial infarction, more hypertension and dyslipidemia, worse renal function, more severe valvular heart disease, but higher left ventricular ejection fraction (P<0.05 for all comparisons). Baseline Synergy Between Percutaneous Coronary Intervention With Taxus and Cardiac Surgery scores were similar between groups. Older patients underwent more left main percutaneous coronary intervention (58% versus 39%; P<0.0001), atherectomy (32% versus 22%; P<0.0001), and femoral access (87% versus 79%, P=0.0003) as compared with younger patients. In-hospital vascular complications did not differ, but rates of respiratory failure, pericardial tamponade, and cardiogenic shock were higher in older patients. Rates of all-cause death and major adverse cardiovascular and cerebral events did not differ between groups at 30 and 90 days. Rates of all-cause death at 1 year were higher in patients ≥75 years (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.99 [95% CI, 1.24-3.18], P=0.004).

CONCLUSIONS

Impella-supported high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention in older patients is feasible with an acceptable safety profile. However, age ≥75 years remained a statistically significant predictor for all-cause death at 1 year.

REGISTRATION

URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov; Unique Identifier: NCT04136392.

Intravascular Ultrasound Guiding Percutaneous Coronary Interventions in Complex Higher Risk-Indicated Patients (CHIPs): Insight from Clinical Evidence

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has transformed the management of complex higher risk-indicated patients (CHIPs), representing a pivotal advancement in high-risk procedure navigation. IVUS, complementing conventional angiography, provides unparalleled insights into lesion characteristics, plaque morphology, and vessel structure, enhancing the precision of stent placement and postprocedural care for CHIPs. The ongoing trials underscore the pivotal role of IVUS in optimizing procedural accuracy and improving clinical outcomes for high-risk patients, promising exciting new findings. However, notable gaps persist, encompassing the absence of standardized IVUS protocols, cost implications, and limited integration into routine practice. This study aims to address these gaps comprehensively by further delineating the influence of IVUS on patient outcomes, procedural success, and long-term prognostic indicators. This review aims to provide a clear overview of IVUS-guided PCI in CHIP, highlighting the significance of ongoing trials, identifying prevalent challenges, and outlining the objective of narrowing these gaps.

A Novel Approach to Identifying Hibernating Myocardium Using Radiomics-Based Machine Learning

Background To assess the feasibility of a machine learning (ML) approach using radiomics features of perfusion defects on rest myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) to detect the presence of hibernating myocardium. Methodology Data of patients who underwent 99mTc-sestamibi MPI and 18F-FDG PET/CT for myocardial viability assessment were retrieved. Rest MPI data were processed on ECToolbox, and polar maps were saved using the NFile PMap tool. The reference standard for defining hibernating myocardium was the presence of mismatched perfusion-metabolism defect with impaired myocardial contractility at rest. Perfusion defects on the polar maps were delineated with regions of interest (ROIs) after spatial resampling and intensity discretization. Replicable random sampling allocated 80% (257) of the perfusion defects of the patients from January 2017 to September 2022 to the training set and the remaining 20% (64) to the validation set. An independent dataset of perfusion defects from 29 consecutive patients from October 2022 to January 2023 was used as the testing set for model evaluation. One hundred ten first and second-order texture features were extracted for each ROI. After feature normalization and imputation, 14 best-ranked features were selected using a multistep feature selection process including the Logistic Regression and Fast Correlation-Based Filter. Thirteen supervised ML algorithms were trained with stratified five-fold cross-validation on the training set and validated on the validation set. The ML algorithms with a Log Loss of <0.688 and <0.672 in the cross-validation and validation steps were evaluated on the testing set. Performance matrices of the algorithms assessed included area under the curve (AUC), classification accuracy (CA), F1 score, precision, recall, and specificity. To provide transparency and interpretability, SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values were assessed and depicted as beeswarm plots. Results Two hundred thirty-nine patients (214 males; mean age 56 ± 11 years) were enrolled in the study. There were 371 perfusion defects (321 in the training and validation sets; 50 in the testing set). Based on the reference standard, 168 perfusion defects had hibernating myocardium (139 in the training and validation sets; 29 in the testing set). On cross-validation, six ML algorithms with Log Loss <0.688 had AUC >0.800. On validation, 10 ML algorithms had a Log Loss value <0.672, among which six had AUC >0.800. On model evaluation of the selected models on the unseen testing set, nine ML models had AUC >0.800 with Gradient Boosting Random Forest (xgboost) [GB RF (xgboost)] achieving the highest AUC of 0.860 and could detect the presence of hibernating myocardium in 21/29 (72.4%) perfusion defects with a precision of 87.5% (21/24), specificity 85.7% (18/21), CA 78.0% (39/50) and F1 Score 0.792. Four models depicted a clear pattern of model interpretability based on the beeswarm SHAP plots. These were GB RF (xgboost), GB (scikit-learn), GB (xgboost), and Random Forest. Conclusion Our study demonstrates the potential of ML in detecting hibernating myocardium using radiomics features extracted from perfusion defects on rest MPI images. This proof-of-concept underscores the notion that radiomics features capture nuanced information beyond what is perceptible to the human eye, offering promising avenues for improved myocardial viability assessment.

Myocardial work in patients with heart failure and ischemic cardiomyopathy according to the mode of coronary revascularization

BACKGROUND

The association of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) on myocardial function, as reflected in myocardial work (MyW) parameters, in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy and heart failure (HF) is unknown.

METHODS

We analyzed data from 68 patients who were hospitalized with chronic HF due to ischemic cardiomyopathy and stratified them according to the mode of revascularization. All patients underwent a 2D speckle tracking echocardiography exam performed by the same expert sonographer and had complete MyW data including global work index (GWI), global constructive work (GCW), global wasted work (GWW), and global work efficiency (GWE).

RESULTS

The mean age of patients was 70 ± 10 years and 86.8% were men. The mean left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in overall cohort was 31.6 ± 9.5%. Both subgroups did not significantly differ in terms of baseline LVEF, comorbidities, and pharmacotherapy. Compared with those who received PCI, patients revascularized with CABG had significantly greater GWI (821 vs. 555 mmHg%, p = 0.002), GCW (1101 vs. 794 mmHg%, p = 0.001), GWE (78 vs. 72.6%, p = 0.025), and global longitudinal strain (-8.7 vs. -6.7%, p = 0.004). Both patient subgroups did not significantly differ with respect to GWW (273 vs. 245 mmHg%, p = 0.410 for CABG and PCI, respectively) and survival during the median follow-up of 18 months (log-rank p = 0.813).

CONCLUSION

Patients with HF and ischemic cardiomyopathy revascularized with CABG had greater myocardial work performance when compared with those revascularized with PCI. This might suggest a higher degree of functional myocardial revascularization associated with the CABG procedure.

Influence of left ventricular ejection fraction in patients undergoing contemporary pLVAD-supported high-risk PCI

BACKGROUND

Left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction worsens outcomes in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The objective of this study, therefore, was to evaluate outcomes of pLVAD-supported high-risk PCI (HRPCI) patients according to LV ejection fraction (LVEF).

METHODS

Patients from the PROTECT III study undergoing pLVAD-supported HRPCI were stratified according to baseline LVEF: severe LV dysfunction (LVEF <30%), mild and moderate LV dysfunction (LVEF ≥30% to <50%), or preserved LV function (LVEF ≥50%). Major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE: composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction, stroke/transient ischemic attack, and repeat revascularization), and PCI-related complications were assessed at 90 days and mortality was assessed at 1-year.

RESULTS

From March 2017 to March 2020, 940 patients had evaluable baseline LVEF recorded in the study database. Patients with preserved LV function were older, more frequently presented with myocardial infarction, and underwent more left main PCI and atherectomy. Immediate PCI-related coronary complications were infrequent (2.7%, overall), similar between groups (P = 0.98), and not associated with LVEF. Unadjusted 90-day MACCE rates were similar among LVEF groups; however, as a continuous variable, LVEF was associated with both 90-day MACCE (adj.HR per 5% 0.89, 95% CI [0.80, 0.98], P = 0.018) and 1-year mortality (adj.HR per 5% 0.84 [0.78, 0.90], P <0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

Patients who underwent pLVAD-supported HRPCI exhibited low incidence of PCI-related complications, regardless of baseline LVEF. However, LVEF was associated with 90-day MACCE and 1-year mortality.

Current Landscape and Future Directions of Coronary Revascularization in Ischemic Systolic Heart Failure: A Review

Ischemic heart disease is the largest cause of death worldwide and the most common cause of heart failure (HF). The incidence and prevalence of HF are increasing owing to an aging population and improvements in the acute cardiac care of previously fatal conditions such as myocardial infarction. Strategies to improve outcomes in patients with ischemic systolic HF are urgently needed. There is systematic underutilization of testing for coronary artery disease in patients with HF, and revascularization is performed in an even smaller minority despite evidence for reduced mortality with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) over medical therapy in the Surgical Treatment for Ischemic Heart Failure Extension Study. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a less-invasive approach to coronary revascularization; however, the recent Revascularization for Ischemic Ventricular Dysfunction (REVIVED)-British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (BCIS2) trial failed to demonstrate a benefit of PCI compared with that of medical therapy in patients with ischemic systolic HF. The comparative effectiveness of PCI and CABG for patients with ischemic systolic HF remains unknown, particularly in the era of contemporary medical therapy. In this review, we discuss the benefit of CABG in ischemic systolic HF, its underutilization, and the unmet clinical need. We also review the recent REVIVED-BCIS2 trial comparing PCI to medical therapy, as well as upcoming randomized controlled trials of PCI for ischemic systolic HF and persistent evidence gaps that will exist despite anticipated data from ongoing trials. There remains a need for an adequately powered randomized controlled trials to establish the comparative clinical effectiveness of PCI vs CABG in ischemic systolic HF in the era of contemporary revascularization approaches and medical therapy, as well as trials of coronary revascularization in patients with HF with preserved ejection fraction or less severe forms of left ventricular systolic dysfunction.

Mortality rate after coronary revascularization in heart failure patients with coronary artery disease

AIMS

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a common cause of heart failure (HF). It remains unclear who, when and why to direct towards coronary revascularization. The outcomes of coronary revascularization in HF patients are still a matter of debate nowadays. This study aims to evaluate the effect of revascularization strategy on all-cause of death in the context of ischaemic HF.

METHODS AND RESULTS

An observational cohort was conducted on 692 consecutive patients who underwent coronary angiography at the University Hospital of Toulouse between January 2018 and December 2021 for either a recent diagnosis of HF or a decompensated chronic HF, and in whom coronary angiograms showed at least 50% obstructive coronary lesion. The study population was divided into two groups according to the performance or not of a coronary revascularization procedure. The living status (alive or dead) of each of the study's participants was observed by April 2022. Seventy-three per cent of the study population underwent coronary revascularization either by percutaneous coronary intervention (66.6%) or coronary artery bypass grafting (6.2%). Baseline characteristics including age, sex and cardiovascular risk factors did not differ between the invasive and conservative groups, respectively. Death occurred in 162 study participants resulting in an all-cause mortality rate of 23.5%; 26.7% of observed deaths have occurred in the conservative group versus 22.2% in the invasive group (P = 0.208). No difference in survival outcomes has been observed over a mean follow-up period of 2.5 years (P = 0.140) even after stratification by HF categories (P = 0.132) or revascularization modalities (P = 0.366).

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from the present study showed comparable all-cause mortality rates between groups. Coronary revascularization does not modify short-term survival outcomes in HF patients compared with optimal medical therapy alone outside the setting of acute coronary syndrome.

Myocardial Viability Testing in the Management of Ischemic Heart Failure

Although major advances have occurred lately in medical therapy, ischemic heart failure remains an important cause of death and disability. Viable myocardium represents a cause of reversible ischemic left ventricular dysfunction. Coronary revascularization may improve left ventricular function and prognosis in patients with viable myocardium. Although patients with impaired left ventricular function and multi-vessel coronary artery disease benefit the most from revascularization, they are at high risk of complications related to revascularization procedure. An important element in selecting the patients for myocardial revascularization is the presence of the viable myocardium. Multiple imaging modalities can assess myocardial viability and predict functional improvement after revascularization, with dobutamine stress echocardiography, nuclear imaging tests and magnetic resonance imaging being the most frequently used. However, the role of myocardial viability testing in the management of patients with ischemic heart failure is still controversial due to the failure of randomized controlled trials of revascularization to reveal clear benefits of viability testing. This review summarizes the current knowledge regarding the concept of viable myocardium, depicts the role and tools for viability testing, discusses the research involving this topic and the controversies related to the utility of myocardial viability testing and provides a patient-centered approach for clinical practice.