Comparative effectiveness of exercise electrocardiography versus exercise echocardiography in women presenting with suspected coronary artery disease: a randomized study.

Aims: There is a paucity of randomized diagnostic studies in women with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). This study sought to assess the relative value of exercise stress echocardiography (ESE) compared with exercise electrocardiography (Ex-ECG) in women with CAD. Methods and results: Accordingly, 416 women with no prior CAD and intermediate probability of CAD (mean pre-test probability 41%), were randomized to undergo either Ex-ECG or ESE. The primary endpoints were the positive predictive value (PPV) for the detection of significant CAD and downstream resource utilization. The PPV of ESE and Ex-ECG were 33% and 30% (P = 0.87), respectively for the detection of CAD. There were similar clinic visits (36 vs. 29, P = 0.44) and emergency visits with chest pain (28 vs. 25, P = 0.55) in the Ex-ECG and ESE arms, respectively. At 2.9 years, cardiac events were 6 Ex-ECG vs. 3 ESE, P = 0.31. Although initial diagnosis costs were higher for ESE, more women underwent further CAD testing in the Ex-ECG arm compared to the ESE arm (37 vs. 17, P = 0.003). Overall, there was higher downstream resource utilization (hospital attendances and investigations) in the Ex-ECG arm (P = 0.002). Using National Health Service tariffs 2020/21 (British pounds) the cumulative diagnostic costs were 7.4% lower for Ex-ECG compared with ESE, but this finding is sensitive to the cost differential between ESE and Ex-ECG. Conclusion: In intermediate-risk women who are able to exercise, Ex-ECG had similar efficacy to an ESE strategy, with higher resource utilization whilst providing cost savings.

Diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis in patients presenting with cardiac arrest or life-threatening arrhythmias.

OBJECTIVE: Cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) may present with cardiac arrest or life-threatening arrhythmias. There are limited data on this subgroup of patients with CS. Advanced imaging including cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) and cardiac 18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) are used for diagnosis. This study aimed to describe advanced imaging patterns suggestive of CS among patients presenting with cardiac arrest or life-threatening arrhythmias. METHODS: An imaging database of a CS referral centre (Royal Brompton Hospital, London) was screened for patients presenting with cardiac arrest or life-threatening arrhythmias and having imaging features of suspected CS. Patients diagnosed with definite or probable/possible CS were included. RESULTS: Study population included 60 patients (median age 49 years) with male predominance (76.7%). The left ventricle was usually non-dilated with mildly reduced ejection fraction (53.4±14.8%). CMR studies showed extensive late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) with 5 (4-8) myocardial segments per patient affected; the right ventricular (RV) side of the septum (28/45) and basal anteroseptum (28/45) were most frequently involved. Myocardial inflammation by FDG-PET was detected in 45 out of 58 patients vs 11 out of 33 patients with oedema imaging available on CMR. When PET was treated as reference to detect myocardial inflammation, CMR oedema imaging was 33.3% sensitive and 77% specific. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with CS presenting with cardiac arrest or life-threatening arrhythmias, LGE was located in areas where the cardiac conduction system travels (basal anteroseptal wall and RV side of the septum). While CMR was the imaging technique that raised possibility of cardiac scarring, oedema imaging had low sensitivity to detect myocardial inflammation compared with FDG-PET.

Cost-effectiveness of a management strategy based on exercise echocardiography versus exercise electrocardiography in patients presenting with suspected angina during long term follow up: A randomized study.

INTRODUCTION: Exercise ECG (Ex-ECG) is advocated by guidelines for patients with low - intermediate probability of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, there are no randomized studies comparing Ex-ECG with exercise stress echocardiography (ESE) evaluating long term cost-effectiveness of each management strategy. METHODS: Accordingly, 385 patients with no prior CAD and low-intermediate probability of CAD (mean pre-test probability 34%), were randomized to undergo either Ex-ECG (194 patients) or ESE (191 patients). The primary endpoint was clinical effectiveness defined as the positive predictive value (PPV) for the detection of CAD of each test. Cost-effectiveness was derived using the cumulative costs incurred by each diagnostic strategy during a mean of follow up of 3.0 years. RESULTS: The PPV of ESE and Ex-ECG were 100% and 64% (p = 0.04) respectively for the detection of CAD. There were fewer clinic (31 vs 59, p < 0.01) and emergency visits (14 vs 30, p = 0.01) and lower number of hospital bed days (8 vs 29, p < 0.01) in the ESE arm, with fewer patients undergoing coronary angiography (13.4% vs 6.3%, p = 0.02). The overall cumulative mean costs per patient were £796 for Ex-ECG and £631 for ESE respectively (p = 0.04) equating to a >20% reduction in cost with an ESE strategy with no difference in the combined end-point of death, myocardial infarction, unplanned revascularization and hospitalization for chest pain between ESE and Ex-ECG (3.2% vs 3.7%, p = 0.38). CONCLUSION: In patients with low to intermediate pretest probability of CAD and suspected angina, an ESE management strategy is cost-effective when compared with Ex-ECG during long term follow up.

Late outcomes of drug eluting and bare metal stents in saphenous vein graft percutaneous coronary intervention.

AIMS: PCI with drug eluting stents (DES) has been shown to reduce restenosis and major adverse cardiac event (MACE) rates compared to bare metal stents (BMS) in native coronary vessels, although outcomes in saphenous vein graft (SVG) lesions are less clear. We retrospectively studied 388 consecutive patients admitted to our centre for SVG PCI to assess mortality and MACE outcomes (defined as composite endpoint of all-death, stroke, myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis and target lesion (TLR)/vessel (TVR) revascularisation) associated with BMS and DES use. METHODS AND RESULTS: Two hundred and nineteen (219) patients had BMS and 169 had DES (total 388 patients). Mean follow up was 41.9±23.5 months. No significant differences were observed in mortality (14.2% vs. 11.8%) or MACE (37.6% vs. 35.8%) between the BMS and DES groups at four years follow-up or at other intervening time points studied. Similarly, no differences in TVR/TLR rates were observed over a similar time period (19.8% vs. 21.6%). CONCLUSIONS: We have observed that DES and BMS use in SVG PCI have comparable mortality and MACE rates, and that in contrast to PCI in native coronary arteries, DES do not reduce revascularisation rates in our study cohort.

Drug eluting stents for the treatment of bare metal in-stent restenosis: long-term outcomes in real world practice.

AIMS: Drug eluting stents (DES) have had a great impact in reducing in-stent restenosis (ISR) in de novo lesions. However, long-term data regarding effectiveness and safety of these stents in treating bare metal stent (BMS) ISR are limited. We report long-term clinical outcomes in a cohort of patients with BMS-ISR treated with DES between April 2002 and December 2003 at our institution. METHODS AND RESULTS: Sixty-nine consecutive patients with significant BMS-ISR were treated with DES implantation. Sirolimus DES were used in 43 patients and paclitaxel DES in 26. All patients were followed up to determine the incidence of major adverse cardiac event (MACE) rates (all-cause death, myocardial infarction, or target vessel revascularisation [TVR]), angina class and the need for clinically driven angiography. The mean age of the cohort was 58.6 ± 10.8 years; 68% were male, 33% were diabetic, 50% had hypertension, 78% were on statin therapy and 59% were current (19%) or previous (41%) smokers. The clinical presentation of ISR was with chronic stable angina in 54 patients, 12 had a non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome and three presented with ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Multivessel stenting was performed in 21 patients and bifurcation stenting in seven patients. Over a mean follow period of 4.9 years, the first event MACE rate was 20% (17 events in 14 patients - eight deaths of which three were cardiac, two non-fatal myocardial infarctions and seven TVR). Excluding non-cardiac death, the adjusted MACE rate was 14.5% (12 events in 10 patients). At long-term follow-up, mean Canadian angina class decreased from 2.3 ± 0.7 pre-procedure to 1.2 ± 0.4, 65% of patients were angina free and 80% were free of MACE. No differences in long-term outcomes were observed between patients receiving paclitaxel and sirolimus DES. CONCLUSIONS: The use of DES for the treatment of BMS-ISR is safe and effective over a mean follow-up period of nearly five years. To our knowledge, this represents the longest follow-up data of real world patients treated in a single interventional centre.