Utility of angiography–physiology coregistration maps during percutaneous coronary intervention in clinical practice

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the utility and feasibility of physiological maps coregistered with angiograms using the pullback of a pressure guidewire with continuous instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) measurements. iFR pullback was obtained for 70 lesions from 70 patients with stable angina pectoris using SyncVision (Philips Corp.). Physiological maps were created, whereby the post-intervention iFR (post-iFR) was predicted as iFRpred. The iFR gap was defined if the difference between the iFRpred and post-iFR was ≥ 0.3. The lesion morphology changed from that during the physiological assessment to that during the angiographic assessment in 26 lesions (37.1%). In particular, 22.6% of angiographic tandem lesions changed to physiological focal lesions. The mean pre-intervention iFR, post-iFR, and iFRpred were 0.73 ± 0.17, 0.90 ± 0.06, and 0.93 ± 0.05, respectively. The mean difference between the iFRpred and post-iFR was 0.029 ± 0.099, with 95% limits of agreement of -0.070–0.128. iFR gaps occurred in 28 patients (40%). Notably, a new iFR gradient causing a ≥ 0.03 iFR drop after stenting occurred in 11 (15.7%) cases. The study patients were divided into two groups according to biases between post-iFR and iFRpred < 0.03 (good concordance group) or ≥ 0.03 (poor concordance group). The pre-intervention heart rate was the only independent predictor of poor concordance (odds ratio, 0.936; 95% confidence interval 0.883–0.992; p = 0.027). Physiological maps under resting conditions may contribute to a reduction in unnecessary stent placements without missing lesions requiring treatment. However, the predictive accuracy of post-iFR performance in the present study was slightly lower than that in the previous reports.