Impact of Coronary Anatomy on Angina Relief in Patients Undergoing Coronary Revascularization

PCI and CABG are two well-established revascularization approaches to treatment of chronic angina caused by coronary atherosclerosis. Nevertheless, 35-42% of patients report recurring or persisting anginal symptoms after coronary revascularization. This can be attributed to many structural and functional causes, prominent amongst which is pre-revascularization angina severity, unrevascularized coronary territory, progression of native or bypass graft atherosclerosis, restenosis (re-narrowing of the vessels) and accompanying adjunctive pharmacotherapy.

The SYNTAX score is an angiographic tool for grading the complexity of coronary disease. It is the sum of points assigned to coronary lesions within one of the 16 segments of the coronary tree. The segments are given a 1,2, or 5 based on the disease presence as defined by the American Heart Association classification. The SYNTAX score has been used to help predict the outcomes of patients undergoing PCI with 3-vessel involvement (e.g. a triple bypass or 3-stent placement PCI). Those patients with the highest scores had the highest risk of a poor outcome with PCI revascularization compared to CABG. Despite these observations, the impact of CAD severity on post-revascularization angina, using the SYNTAX has never been systematically addressed in the current era.