Successful CTO-PCI cut angina frequency and improved overall health status compared with unsuccessful procedures or treatment with meds only in a meta-analysis.
Mental stress–induced myocardial ischemia is significantly associated with adverse cardiovascular events, particularly for women, but it may not always be linked to microvascular dysfunction.
Survival was better with CABG, though not in one subgroup. Still, the goal of PCI in the real world, one observer says, may not be to extend life, but to get short-term symptom relief.
In patients with a severe stenosis at angiography, routine functional assessment of other intermediate lesions offers little clinical advantage over conservative care, researchers propose.