The wisdom in ISCHEMIA

The International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness with Medical and Invasive Approaches (ISCHEMIA) study was published recently demonstrating that over a period of 3.3 years a routine invasive approach along with optimised medical therapy (OMT) was not superior to OMT alone in patients with stable coronary artery disease and at least moderate to severe ischemia. Considerable interest and discussion have emerged over the applicability of the trial to real-world settings and the limitations of the trial. Given the fact that no clinical trial will ever be designed that will be perfect, it is important to prise out the pearls that the findings reveal and not interpret the findings as either positive or negative towards one approach or the other.