Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND:Advances in chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention (CTO PCI) techniques have led to increased procedural success rates among operators. While utilization of CTO PCI has disseminated widely, the learning curve for new operators has not been well-defined. METHODS:Between July 2009 and December 2015, 93 875 CTO PCI cases were extracted from the CathPCI Registry. We delineated a cohort of new CTO operators performing <10 CTO PCI cases per given year. In-hospital outcomes for subsequent CTO PCIs were stratified by the number of prior cases accrued by each operator. Multivariable regression models were used to estimate differences in outcomes with increasing experience. The primary outcome was major adverse cardiovascular events defined as the composite of death, myocardial infarction, stroke, tamponade, or urgent coronary artery bypass grafting. RESULTS:Among 70 916 cases performed by 7251 new operators, procedure success rate was 61.4% and major adverse cardiovascular event rate was 4.2%. Meanwhile, the rate of major bleeding was 4.0%, myocardial infarction 2.0%, mortality 0.6%, tamponade 0.3%, and renal failure 0.2%. Adjusted regression models demonstrated piecewise linear improvements in guidewire crossing, stent placement, and procedure success with accrued volume, albeit with increased contrast use, fluoroscopy time, and bleeding. Major adverse cardiovascular event rates were stable beyond the 12th case (odds ratio per 5 case increase 1.00; 95% CI, 0.98-1.03, P=0.7980). CONCLUSIONS:Among a large number of new CTO PCI operators in the United States, there exists an experiential learning curve for procedural success. However, there were higher rates of bleeding despite case experience, while major adverse cardiovascular events remained relatively unchanged after initiation.

BACKGROUND:Although patients prefer radial over femoral approach, some develop post-procedural arm pain after transradial procedures. This complication has been poorly defined in prior studies. We evaluated the extent of non-ischemic arm pain after transradial arterial access and identify variables that may be associated with this complication. METHODS:We performed a retrospective analysis of a 1706 patient database on patients who underwent transradial catheterization at three experienced radial centers. Arm pain was assessed by adult visual analogue scale (score > 4) defined as moderate to severe pain at the accessed forearm not related to hand ischemia and was evaluated at one day after the procedure. Logistic regression was used to identify the predictors of post-procedural arm pain. RESULTS:The overall incidence of post-procedural arm pain one day after a transradial procedure was 4.5%. Covariate associated with post-procedural arm pain were hemostasis compression >4 h (odds ratio (OR) = 29.47, p < 0.001), radial artery occlusion by Doppler evaluation (OR = 3.35, p < 0.001), radial artery diameter < 2.8 mm (OR = 2.66, p = 0.01), and multiple puncture attempts (OR = 2.31, p = 0.03). CONCLUSION:Approximately 1 in 20 patients undergoing transradial procedure have post-procedural arm pain one day after the procedure. Predictors of this complication relate to radial hemostasis, radial artery occlusion, radial artery diameter, and number of access attempts.

Importance:Anatomical scoring systems for coronary artery disease, such as the SYNTAX (Synergy Between Percutaneous Coronary Intervention [PCI] With Taxus and Cardiac Surgery) score, are well established tools for understanding patient risk. However, they are cumbersome to compute manually for large data sets, limiting their use across broad and varied cohorts. Objective:To adapt an anatomical scoring system for use with registry data, allowing facile and automatic calculation of scores and association with clinical outcomes among patients undergoing percutaneous or surgical revascularization. Design, Setting, and Participants:This cross-sectional observational cohort study involved procedures performed in all cardiac catheterization laboratories in the largest integrated health care system in the United States, the Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System. Patients undergoing coronary angiography in the VA Healthcare System followed by percutaneous or surgical revascularization within 90 days were observed and data were analyzed from January 1, 2010, through September 30, 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures:An anatomical scoring system for coronary artery disease complexity before revascularization was simplified and adapted to data from the VA Clinical Assessment, Reporting, and Tracking Program. The adjusted association between quantified anatomical complexity and major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCEs), including death, myocardial infarction, stroke, and repeat revascularization, was assessed for patients undergoing percutaneous or surgical revascularization. Results:A total of 50 226 patients (49 359 men [98.3%]; mean [SD] age, 66 [9] years) underwent revascularization during the study period, with 34 322 undergoing PCI and 15 904 undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). After adjustment, the highest tertile of anatomical complexity was associated with increased hazard of MACCEs (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 2.12; 95% CI, 2.01-2.23). In contrast, the highest tertile of anatomical complexity among patients undergoing CABG was not independently associated with overall MACCEs (adjusted HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.92-1.17), and only repeat revascularization was associated with increasing complexity (adjusted HR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.06-1.70) in this subgroup. Conclusions and Relevance:These findings suggest that an automatically computed score assessing anatomical complexity can be used to assess longitudinal risk for patients undergoing revascularization. This simplified scoring system appears to be an alternative tool for understanding longitudinal risk across large data sets.