Impact of residual angina on long-term clinical outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass graft for complex coronary artery disease

AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact on 10-year survival of patient-reported anginal status at 1 year following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) in patients with left main coronary artery disease (LMCAD) and/or three-vessel CAD (3VD). METHODS AND RESULTS: In this post hoc analysis of the randomized SYNTAX Extended Survival study, patients were classified as having residual angina (RA) if their self-reported Seattle Angina Questionnaire angina frequency (SAQ-AF) scale was ≤90 at the 1-year follow-up post-revascularization with PCI or CABG. The primary endpoint of all-cause death at 10 years was compared between the RA and no-RA groups. A sensitivity analysis was performed using a 6-month SAQ-AF. At 1 year, 373 (26.1%) out of 1428 patients reported RA. Whilst RA at 1 year was an independent correlate of repeat revascularization at 5 years [18.3 vs. 11.5%; adjusted hazard ratio (HR): 1.54; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.10–2.15], it was not associated with all-cause death at 10 years (22.1 vs. 21.6%; adjusted HR: 1.11; 95% CI: 0.83–1.47). These results were consistent when stratified by the modality of revascularization (PCI or CABG) or by anginal frequency. The sensitivity analysis replicating the analyses based on 6-month angina status resulted in similar findings. CONCLUSION: Among patients with LMCAD and/or 3VD, patient-reported RA at 1 year post-revascularization was independently associated with repeat revascularization at 5 years; however, it did not significantly increase 10-year mortality, irrespective of the primary modality of revascularization or severity of RA.