Benefits of Radial PCI Documented
The current issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions includes an article validating use of a radial approach to complete percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Little data has been published examining this method.
A team from the Duke Research Institute completed a study to examine the outcomes associated with the two most common approaches to PCI, femoral and radial access. An additional consideration is the prevalence of each approach. The researchers additionally considered outcomes for specific patient cohorts including women, those individuals with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), and the elderly.
Data from the Cardiovascular Data Registry, which includes more than 600 sites, was analyzed. The cohort considered included over 593,000 patients. Logistic regression was employed to evaluate the success of the procedure, along with vascular and bleeding complications.
Findings indicate that the radial approach is equally as efficacious as the femoral approach for PCI. Additional benefits of the radial approach include a decreased rate of vascular complications and bleeding. The reduction in bleeding was especially pronounced among those under age 75 and women.
These findings notwithstanding, PCI is most commonly completed with a femoral approach. Based on the results of this assessment, the Duke team suggests that the radial approach should be used more often to improve the safety of PCI.
August 22, 2008 Related topics: Trends, Cardiology