The European Bifurcation Club (EBC) supports a continuous review of the field of coronary artery bifurcation interventions and aims to facilitate a scientific discussion and an exchange of ideas on ...the management of bifurcation disease. The recent focus of meetings and consensus statements has been on the technical issues in bifurcation stenting, recognising that the final result of a bifurcation procedure and the long-term outcome for our patients are strongly influenced by factors, including preprocedural strategy, stenting technique selection, performance of optimal procedural steps, the ability to identify and correct complications and finally, and most important, the overall performance of the operator. Continuous refinement of bifurcation stenting techniques and the promotion of education and training in bifurcation stenting techniques represent a major clinical need. Accordingly, the consensus from the latest EBC meeting in Brussels, October 2021, was to promote education and training in bifurcation stenting based on the EBC principle. Part II of this 16th EBC consensus document aims to provide a step-by-step overview of the pitfalls and technical troubleshooting during the implantation of the second stent either in the provisional stenting (PS) strategy or in upfront 2-stent techniques (e.g., 2-stent PS pathway and double kissing crush stenting). Finally, a detailed overview and discussion of the numerous modalities available to provide continuous education and technical training in bifurcation stenting techniques are discussed, with consideration of their future application in enhancing training and practice in coronary bifurcation lesion treatment.
Cardiac surgery is the reference treatment for patients with left main (LM) disease, although percutaneous coronary intervention with drug-eluting stents is emerging as a possible alternative. The ...objective of this registry was to evaluate the 2-year outcome of elective percutaneous coronary intervention for unprotected LM disease with paclitaxel-eluting stents.
A total of 291 patients were prospectively included from 4 centers. Acute myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock were the only exclusion criteria. Patients were 69+/-11 years old, 29% were diabetic, and 25% had 3-vessel disease. For distal LM lesions (78%), the provisional side-branch T-stenting approach was used in 92% of cases and final kissing balloon inflation in 97%. Angiographic success was obtained in 99.7% of cases. At 2-year follow-up, the total cardiac death rate was 5.4% (1 EuroSCORE point was associated with a 15% 95% confidence interval 2.9% to 28.2%, P=0.013 higher risk of cardiac death), target-lesion revascularization was 8.7%, and incidence of Q-wave or non-Q-wave myocardial infarction was 0.9% and 3.1%, respectively. The combined end point occurred in 15.8% of cases and stroke in 0.7%. The incidence of definite and probable LM stent thrombosis was 0.7%, whereas the incidence of any stent thrombosis was 3.8%, with a higher risk in patients with side-branch stenting in the presence of LM bifurcation lesions (hazard ratio 9.6, 95% confidence interval 1.2 to 77.7, P=0.035).
Unprotected LM stenting with paclitaxel-eluting stents, with a strategy of provisional side-branch T-stenting for distal lesions, provides excellent acute angiographic results and good mid-term clinical outcomes, with a 15.8% rate of major adverse cardiac events at 2-year follow-up.
With newer drug-eluting stents (DES), PCI has appeared as an acceptable alternative to cardiac surgery in the treatment of unprotected left main (ULM) lesions. Using data from the French Left Main ...Taxus and the LEft MAin Xience registries, we compared two-year outcomes in consecutive patients from 2003-2008 using everolimus-eluting stents (EES) vs. paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES).
We performed a matched comparison according to SYNTAX score, distal LM stenosis, provisional side-branch T-stenting and single stent use, focusing on the primary endpoints of target vessel MI (TVMI) and target vessel failure (TVF). After propensity score matching, there were 172 patients in each group. There was no difference in gender (76.5% male), age (69.5 ± 11.3 years), diabetes (26.2% vs. 24.4%, p=0.71), NSTEMI (40.7% vs. 40.7%, p=1), or LVEF <40% (11.0% vs. 6.7%, p=0.22). Patients with distal LM lesions (75.9%) were treated using provisional T-stenting in 91.1%. The side branch was stented in 22% of all patients (p=0.51). Cumulative two-year events showed significant differences in TVMI (9.9% vs. 4.1%, p=0.04) and TVF (16.3% vs. 7.6%, p=0.01) for PES and EES, respectively.
ULM stenting with EES is safer and more effective than PES with a reduction in TLF by 53% at two years.
We aimed to determine the correlation between optical frequency-domain imaging (OFDI) and micro-computed tomography (mCT) in the quantitative and qualitative assessment of ABSORB® bioresorbable ...vascular scaffold (BVS) in a bench test of multiple bifurcation technique.
BVS were deployed in bifurcation silicon phantoms divided into two benches. Bench A is a LAD-diagonal bifurcation with a 40° angle and bench B, a left main bifurcation with a 70° angle. Finet’s law was respected. Different bifurcation techniques (provisional T stenting, kissing balloon, mini crush and culotte) were performed with a total of 16 procedures, 8 for each bench. All procedures were imaged by OFDI and mCT. BVS area, lumen area, number of struts, maximal stent thickness, disruption, lumen protrusion and deformation were the parameters collected. The analysis was performed in each segment, proximal, bifurcation and distal.
In bench A, we found no differences between OFDI and mCT for each proximal, bifurcation and distal segments concerning BVS area, lumen area, number of struts, maximal stent thickness, fractures, lumen protrusion, BVS deformation or BVS fragments. In the proximal segment, length was higher in mCT (13.2mm vs 10.4mm; p<0.0001) and there was more malapposition detected in mCT (75% vs 0%, p=0.007). In bench B, for the proximal segment, lumen area was higher (13.7mm2 vs 13.mm2, p=0.01) and we found more BVS malapposition in mCT (100% vs 0%, p=0.0002). All the other parameters were similar. In each bench, the apposition defect measured by mCT remained minimal.
We demonstrated an excellent correlation between OFDI and mCT which is considered as the gold standard to evaluate stent in bench tests. In vitro techniques can now be validated in vivo using OFDI.
Background Introduction Few data is available on the comparison between diabetic and non-diabetic patients after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug eluting stents for unprotected left ...main coronary artery disease.
We sought to assess the efficacy and safety of everolimus-eluting stents for unprotected left main disease.
A total of 173 consecutive patients with de novo significant unprotected left main stenosis ...received an everolimus-eluting stent in four French centres. Among them, 140 (81 %) had involvement of the distal portion of left main, and 129/140 (92%) were treated with provisional side branch T-stenting, with a side branch stenting rate of 20%. Angiographic success was achieved in all cases. At 12 months, the cumulative rate of major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular events (MACCE) was 26/173 (15%) including death from any cause (N=5, 2.9%), stroke (N=4, 2.3%), Q-wave myocardial infarction (MI) (N=2, 1.2%), non-Q-wave MI (N=6, 3.5%) and any repeat revascularisation (N=16, 9.3%). At one year, the rate of target-lesion revascularisation (TLR) was 5/173 (2.9%), target-vessel revascularisation was 12/173 (7 %) and the rate of definite or probable left main stent thrombosis 1/173 (0.6 %).
Unprotected left main stenting using everolimus-eluting stents and a strategy of provisional side branch T-stenting for distal lesions, is safe and effective in the midterm, with a relatively low rate of events and reintervention at one year.
Limited long-term data are available to support drug-eluting stent (DES) unprotected left main (LM) intervention. We sought to evaluate long-term outcomes of LM intervention with paclitaxel-eluting ...stents.
In this prospective multicentre registry, 291 patients with unprotected LM stenosis underwent percutaneous revascularisation with the TAXUS® Express® stent, using a consistent technical approach for both ostial/shaft and bifurcation lesions (provisional side branch stenting). At five years (n=263), the cumulative incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and cardiac death were 23.6% and 12.5%, respectively. Myocardial infarction (MI) occurred in 16 patients (6.1%), definite stent thrombosis in 0.4%, and target lesion revascularisation (TLR) was required in 10.3%. Patients with distal LM lesions requiring two-stent procedures had increased MACE compared with those with single-stent interventions (34.1% vs. 17.8%, p=0.009). This was primarily driven by an increased incidence of cardiac death (18.2% vs. 8.5%, p=0.05). Diabetes was associated with increased TLR and was an independent predictor of MACE at five years (odds ratio OR 2.10, 95% confidence interval CI 1.10-3.99, p=0.02).
This study confirms the long-term safety and efficacy of the TAXUS® DES in unprotected LM stenting. Diabetes and the need for a second stent in distal LM interventions were associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes.
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