Impact and trends of intravascular imaging in diagnostic coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention in inpatients in the United States

BACKGROUND: Intravascular imaging with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an important adjunct to invasive coronary angiography. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective was to examine the frequency of intravascular coronary imaging, trends in imaging use, and outcomes of patients undergoing angiography and/or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the United States. METHODS: Adult patients ≥18 years of age undergoing in-hospital cardiac catheterization from January 2004 to December 2014 were identified from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS). International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) diagnosis and procedure codes were used to identify IVUS and OCT use during diagnostic angiography and PCI. RESULTS: Among 3,211,872 hospitalizations with coronary angiography, intracoronary imaging was performed in 88,775 cases (4.8% of PCI and 1.0% of diagnostic procedures), with IVUS in 98.9% and OCT in 1.1% of cases. Among patients undergoing PCI, the rate of intravascular coronary imaging increased from 2.1% in 2004-2005 to 6.6% in 2013-2014 (P < 0.001 for trend). Use of intravascular coronary imaging was associated with lower in-hospital mortality in patients undergoing PCI (adjusted OR 0.77; 95% CI 0.71-0.83). There was marked variability in intravascular imaging by hospital, with 63% and 13% of facilities using intravascular imaging in <5% and >15% of PCIs, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In a large administrative database from the United States, intravascular imaging use was low, increased over time, and imaging was associated with reduced in-hospital mortality. Substantial variation in the frequency of intravascular imaging by hospital was observed. Additional investigation to determine clinical benefits of IVUS and OCT are warranted.