Altered autonomic cardiac control predicts restenosis after percutaneous coronary intervention.
BACKGROUND
Early and late restenosis in up to 30% remains a major problem for long-term success after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Compared to bare metal stents, the use of drug-eluting stents reduces restenosis below 10%, but implant coasts have to be considered. In restenosis noninvasive testing lacks diagnostic power. We applied a new approach to identify patients with a high risk for restenosis after PCI by combining heart rate (HR) and blood pressure variability (BPV) analyses.


METHODS
In 52 patients with clinical suspicion of restenosis and history of PCI, we investigated patterns of cardiovagal autonomic regulation prior to cardiac catheterization. The patients were separated in (i) patients with restenosis (CAD+R) and (ii) patients without restenosis (CAD-R), where restenosis is defined as a stenosis greater than 75% of luminal diameter in at least one main vessel. The following parameters/methods were evaluated: Canadian Cardiovascular Society grade (CCS-grade), vessel disease score (CAD-level), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), heart rate variability (HRV), BPV, baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), as well as HR turbulence and blood pressure (BP) potentiation caused by premature ventricular complexes.


RESULTS
Whereas age, LVEF, CAD-level, CCS-grade, and mean BP did not differ between CAD+R and CAD-R, significant differences were found in (i) BPV: diastolic LF/P, systolic, and diastolic UVLF, (ii) in BRS: slope of tachycardic sequences, and (iii) in extrasystolic parameters: heart rate turbulence onset (HRTO) and potentiation of systolic BP (SBPP). Standard HRV parameters did not show significant differences between the groups. Using the two parameters diastolic LF/P (threshold >0.2) and HRTO (threshold >0) restenosis were predicted in 83.4%.


CONCLUSIONS
These results demonstrate that indicators of sympathetic activation or vagal depression identify restenosis in patients after PCI, thus opening a perspective for a new noninvasive monitoring.
Department of Cardiology, Clinic of Internal Medicine I, University of Jena, Jena, Germany. matthias.goernig@med.uni-jena.de
Matthias
M
Goernig
Matthias
M
Gramsch
Vico
V
Baier
Hans-Rainer
HR
Figulla
Uwe
U
Leder
Andreas
A
Voss
D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D023903:Coronary Restenosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006329:Heart Conduction System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric