Aims: To evaluate the impact of ad hoc percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) which combines coronary angioplasty and PCI in the same procedure in the era of drug-eluting stents (DES).
Methods and results: From the IRIS-DES registry, 4,738 angina patients treated using PCI with DES were enrolled. The 18-month outcomes were compared between ad hoc and non-ad hoc groups after adjustment using inverse-probability-of-treatment weighting. Ad hoc PCI was performed in 3,562 (75.2%) patients. The ad hoc PCI group had less extensive coronary disease and received fewer stents. The incidence of major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular events, consisting of death, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and repeat revascularisation, did not differ between the ad hoc and the non-ad hoc groups (8.3% vs. 7.6%; adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] of ad hoc PCI, 1.22; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.91 to 1.63; p=0.18). The individual endpoints of death (2.0% vs. 1.9%; aHR, 1.57; 95% CI: 0.86- 2.88; p=0.14), MI (0.8% vs. 1.0%; aHR, 0.62; 95% CI: 0.29 - 1.33; p=0.22), stroke (1.0% vs. 0.9%; aHR, 1.25; 95% CI: 0.58-2.69; p=0.57), and repeat revascularisation (4.4% vs. 4.0%; aHR, 1.23; 95% CI: 0.86-1.77; p=0.25) also did not differ between the groups.
Conclusions: Ad hoc PCI using DES appears to be feasible for angina patients at a relatively low risk of procedure. This approach may reasonably be performed with evaluation of objective ischaemia using non-invasive or invasive tests.