title: Impact of side-branch flow in coronary bifurcation intervention.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The optimal strategy in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for coronary artery bifurcation lesions has yet to be agreed upon. We compared a strategy for stenting the main vessel to provide a complete perfusion flow in the side branch, namely thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) - III, with a strategy for intervention in both the main vessel and the side branch (MV + SB).
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective study utilized data on 258 consecutive patients with bifurcation lesions scheduled for PCI at Tehran Heart Center between March 2003 and March 2008. The patients were followed up for 12 months, and the primary end point was a major adverse cardiac event (MACE), i.e. cardiac death, myocardial infarction, target-vessel revascularization, and target-lesion revascularization during the 12-month follow-up period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 52.7% of the patients underwent PCI on the main vessel of the bifurcation lesions (MV group) and 47.3% with a similar lesion type received a percutaneous intervention on both the main vessel and the side branch (MV + SB group). The total rate of MACE during the follow-up was 4.3% (11 patients); the rate was not significantly different between the MV and MV + SB groups (3.7% vs. 4.9%, respectively; p value = 0.622).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There was no association between MACE in performing a simple or complex interventional strategy to treat coronary bifurcation lesions when drawing the TIMI- III flow as a goal in a simple technique.
authors.affiliation: Tehran Heart Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid Reza
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Poorhosseini
authors.forename: Seyed Ebrahim
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Kassaian
authors.forename: Seyed Kianoosh
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Hosseini
authors.forename: Mohmmad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fotoohi
authors.forename: Mojtaba
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salarifar
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alidoosti
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharafi
authors.forename: Younes
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nozari
authors.forename: Ebrahim
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nematipour
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aghajani
authors.forename: Ali Mohammad
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Haji Zeinali
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amirzadegan
authors.forename: Behzad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Babapour
authors.forename: Mir Hosein
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Seyed Mohammad Zadeh
keywords: Angioplasty; Coronary bifurcation lesion; MACE