Intracoronary Imaging Versus Coronary Angiography to Guide Drug-Coated Balloon Intervention in Coronary Artery Disease: A Propensity-Matched Pilot Study Analysis

Limited data exist about the effect of intracoronary imaging (ICI)-guided drug-coated balloon (DCB) intervention on clinical end points. In all, 1157 patients with coronary artery disease treated with DCB between December 2014 and December 2017 at Beijing Anzhen Hospital were included in the final analysis in this cohort study. The primary end point was the incidence of target lesion failure (TLF), a composite of cardiac death, target vessel myocardial infarction (MI), and target lesion revascularization, and the key secondary end point was the incidence of cardiac death or target vessel MI. The median follow-up for clinical events was 32.0 months (IQR 25.0-40.0). Intracoronary imaging was used in 90 (7.8%) patients. There was no statistically significant difference in TLF (12.2% vs 12.5%, P = .80) between ICI-guided and angiography-guided group. Cardiac death or target vessel MI rates (1.1% vs 3.7%, P = .17) were numerically lower for the ICI-guided cohort. In the propensity score–based analysis, TLF (10.5% vs 16.2%, P = .19) and cardiac death or target vessel MI rates (1.2% vs 2.3%, P = .51) tended to be lower for the ICI-guided cohort. In this observational study, TLF rate tended to decrease in the ICI-guided DCB treatment group compared with angiography-guided procedures. Larger studies are needed.