Michael Behnes1, MD; Ibrahim Akin1, MD; Philipp Kuche1, MD; Tobias Schupp1, MS; Linda Reiser1, MS; Armin Bollow1, MS; Gabriel Taton1, MS; Thomas Reichelt1, MS; Dominik Ellguth1, MD; Niko Engelke1, MS; Ibrahim El-Battrawy1, MD; Siegfried Lang1, PhD; Emmanouil S. Brilakis2, MD, PhD; Lorenzo Azzalini3, MD, PhD; Alfredo R. Galassi4, MD; Marouane Boukhris5, MD; Hans Neuser6, MD; Franz-Joseph Neumann7, MD; Christoph Nienaber8, MD; Christel Weiß9, PhD; Martin Borggrefe1, MD; Kambis Mashayekhi, MD
1. First Department of Medicine, University Medical Centre Mannheim (UMM), Faculty of Medicine Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, European Center for AngioScience (ECAS), and DZHK (German Center for Cardiovascular Research) partner site Heidelberg/Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany; 2. Minneapolis Heart Institute, Minneapolis, MN, USA; 3. Interventional Cardiology Unit, Cardio-Thoracic-Vascular Department, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy; 4. Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy; 5. Department of Cardiology, Abderrhamen Mami Hospital, Ariana, Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia; 6. Helios Klinikum Plauen, Klinik für Innere Medizin II, Plauen, Germany; 7. Department of Cardiology and Angiology II, University Heart Center Freiburg - Bad Krozingen, Bad Krozingen, Germany; 8. Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, NHS, London, United Kingdom; 9. Institute of Biomathematics and Medical Statistics, University Medical Center Mannheim (UMM), Faculty of Medicine Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
Aims: This study sought to assess the prognostic impact of coronary chronic total occlusions (CTO) in patients presenting with ventricular tachyarrhythmias on admission.
Methods and results: A large retrospective registry was used, including all consecutive patients presenting with ventricular tachyarrhythmias on admission and undergoing coronary angiography from 2002 to 2016. Patients with a CTO were compared with all other patients (non-CTO) for prognostic outcomes. Statistics comprised Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses. Within a total of 1,461 consecutive patients included with ventricular tachyarrhythmias on admission, a CTO was present in 20%. At midterm follow-up of 18 months, the primary endpoint all-cause mortality had occurred in 40% of CTO patients compared to 27% of non-CTO patients (HR 1.563, 95% CI: 1.263–1.934; p=0.001). The rates of secondary endpoints were higher for in-hospital all-cause mortality at index (29% versus 20%, log-rank p=0.027) and the composite endpoint of cardiac death at 24 hours, recurrent ventricular tachyarrhythmias and appropriate ICD therapies at midterm follow-up (28% versus 20%, log-rank p=0.005). Mortality rates were highest in CTO patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD), acute myocardial infarction and in patients surviving index hospitalisation.
Conclusions: In patients presenting with ventricular tachyarrhythmias on admission, the presence of a coronary CTO is independently associated with an increase of midterm all-cause mortality, in-hospital all-cause mortality and the composite endpoint of early cardiac death, recurrent ventricular tachyarrhythmias and appropriate ICD therapies.