Deferring angioplasty in intermediate coronary lesions based on coronary flow criteria is safe: comparison of a deferred group to an intervention group

The decision for revascularization in patients with intermediate coronary lesions remains a challenging topic, particularly when objective data of reversible ischemia are lacking. In some of the patients, coronary revascularization is performed or deferred without definitive evidence on the clinical significance of the coronary stenosis. We investigated the usefulness of coronary flow reserve (CFR) measurements in 28 patients with intermediate coronary lesions. We compared 20 patients who underwent angioplasty based on Doppler-wire-derived CFR with 8 patients for whom angioplasty was deferred (diameter stenosis of 50.7 +/- 2.0% versus 46.5 +/- 3.1%, P < 0.0001 and CFR of 1.80 +/- 0.32 versus 2.65 +/- 0.11, P = 0.002, respectively). Angioplasty resulted in normalization of the CFR to 2.57 +/- 0.53 (P < 0.0001, versus the baseline value). During a follow-up period of 58.1 weeks (range 23-149 weeks), eight patients in the revascularization group were readmitted to the hospital, one of them with a myocardial infarction in the territory of the target vessel, compared with only one admission in the deferred group. Target-vessel revascularization was performed in three patients (a fourth patient declined it) in the former group, compared with only one in the latter. Symptomatic improvement or no change in clinical status was observed in the majority of patients in both groups (90% in the revascularization group and 87.5% in the deferred group). We conclude that in a selected group of patients with intermediate coronary lesions, measurement of CFR may be a useful tool in determining the need for revascularization based on its physiologic significance. Importantly, deferring PTCA in patients with intermediate lesions and normal CFR values seems to be safe.