Baseline Characteristics of a Retrospective Patient Cohort in the Korean Vascular Intervention Society Endovascular Therapy in Lower Limb Artery Diseases (K-VIS ELLA) Registry

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Korean Vascular Intervention Society Endovascular Therapy in Lower Limb Artery Diseases (K-VIS ELLA) Registry is a multicenter observational study with retrospective and prospective cohorts of patients with lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) undergoing endovascular treatment. In this study, we report the baseline characteristics of this retrospective cohort. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In the present study we analyzed datasets of 3073 patients with 3972 target limbs from a retrospective cohort treated with endovascular therapy in 31 Korean hospitals. Data regarding patient baseline clinical and lesion characteristics and postintervention medications were collected from electronic medical records. RESULTS: The mean patient age was 68.3±9.4 years. The majority were male (82.1%) with comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus (58.0%), hypertension (73.4%), and coronary artery disease (CAD; 55.3%). Patients more commonly presented with intermittent claudication (66.3%) than with critical limb ischemia (CLI; 33.7%). Femoropopliteal artery (41.2%) was the most common target vessel for endovascular treatment, followed by the aortoiliac (35.6%) and infrapopliteal arteries (23.2%). TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus for the Management of Peripheral Artery Disease (TASC II) type C/D aortoiliac (48.0%) or femoropopliteal lesions (60.2%) were frequent targets of endovascular treatment. At hospital discharge, only 73.1% of patients received dual antiplatelet therapy and 69.2% received a statin. CONCLUSION: The majority of Korean patients with PAD exhibited conventional risk factors, such as male sex, older age, diabetes, and hypertension with coexisting CAD. Complex lesions were frequently treated with endovascular therapy. However, the rate of adherence to guidelines regarding post-procedural medical treatment requires improvement.