Planned angiographic control versus clinical follow-up for patients with unprotected left main stem stenosis treated with second generation drug-eluting stents: A propensity score with matching analysis from the FAILS (failure in left main with second generation stents-Cardiogroup III Study)

Background: The value of angiographic follow-up in unprotected left main (ULM) stenting remains undefined. Methods: The FAILS-2 registry included consecutive patients presenting with a critical lesion of an ULM treated with second generation drug eluting stents in 6 centers from June 2007 to January 2015. Patients were stratified into two groups: those discharged with planned angiographic follow-up and those with clinical follow-up. MACE (Major Adverse Clinical Events, a composite end point of death, myocardial infarction, TLR, and ST) was the primary end point, while each component was a secondary endpoint Sensitivity analysis was performed for patients treated with a provisional or a two-stent strategy. A propensity score analysis was used to compare the outcomes in the two groups. Results: After multivariate adjustment, 220 patients per group were selected. Planned angiographic follow up was performed after a median of 7 (6-10) months. After 16 (14-21) months, rates of MACE were similar between the two groups (24 vs. 21%, P=0.29) with lower rates of all cause and cardiovascular death in the angiographic control group (6 vs. 14%, P=0.01 and 3 vs. 6%, P=0.04) but with higher rates of TLR (15 vs. 5%, P <0.001). The same trend was seen irrespective of the stent strategy. Conclusion: planned angiographic control results in more TLR but may reduce mortality. These findings need to be confirmed by adequately powered randomized controlled trial. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.