Why the study?
Obstructive left main disease is a challenging entity of coronary artery disease with variable patterns reported across studies.
Obstructive left main disease is present in approximately 4.9% of patients undergoing elective catheterization for chronic coronary syndrome, predominantly affecting males around 60 years of age, with CABG being the most common revascularization strategy.
BACKGROUND: Obstructive left main disease (LMD) is a challenging entity of coronary artery disease with variable patterns among different studies. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence, demographic, clinical, and angiographic profiles of LMD. We conducted a single-center retrospective study over a period of 10 years to screen all patients who underwent elective cardiac catheterization for chronic coronary syndrome. Of the 19,336 screened cases, 944 obstructive LMD patients were included as the patients' group. Age and sex-matched control groups included patients with normal coronary angiography and non-LMD. RESULTS: Obstructive LMD had a prevalence of 4.9%, a mean age of around 60 years, and a male to female ratio of approximately 3:1. About 9.8% of LMD patients were < 50 years. Compared to males, females with LMD had significantly older age and increasing prevalence with age from 9.7% in patients < 50 years to 27.4% in patients > 70 years. LMD versus non-LMD patients had a significantly higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and number of stenotic coronary segments and arteries, and nonsignificant differences regarding smoking, hypertension, previous myocardial infarction, and ejection fraction. Ostial LMD had a prevalence of 2%, a mean age of around 58 years and 21% were females. In LMD patients, the most affected sites were the ostial/proximal left anterior descending artery and distal left main bifurcation. Bypass grafting surgery was the standard angiographic decision in LMD in 75.8% of cases, which was significantly higher than non-LMD. LMD patients revascularized surgically versus percutaneous treatment had significantly lower ejection fraction, significantly higher multivessel disease, and no significant differences regarding age, sex, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. CONCLUSION: Obstructive LMD is a relatively common angiographic finding, with a higher prevalence among males around 60 years. In LMD, bypass grafting was the main revascularization strategy. We recommend integrating clinical characteristics, and noninvasive investigations as a predictive model of LMD.
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Algamal et al. (2025) studied this question.
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