Relation Between Lesion Characteristics and Risk With Percutaneous Intervention in the Stent and Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa Era

BACKGROUND: The currently used American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association lesion classification scheme dates from an era when balloon angioplasty was the only percutaneous treatment available and major complications occurred in approximately 7% of patients. Major advances in treatment options would suggest that this scheme may be outmoded, but the schemes that have been suggested to update lesion classification have not been widely accepted. METHODS AND RESULTS: Four thousand one hundred eighty-one consecutive patients (6,676 lesions) formed a training set and 2,146 patients (4,231 lesions) formed a validation set treated from 1995 to 1997 at a single center used by 3 hospital groups. Twenty-seven pretreatment candidate variables were analyzed with the use of stepwise proportional logistic regression, and 9 (nonchronic total occlusion with TIMI flow 0, degenerated vein graft, vein graft age >10 years, lesion length >/= 10 mm, severe calcium, lesion irregularity, large filling defect, angulated >/= 45 degrees plus calcium, and eccentricity) were independently correlated (P/= 3x normal myocardial infarction, or emergency coronary artery bypass grafting>>creatine kinase 2 to 3x myocardial infarction>>possibly related to non-Q-wave myocardial infarction>>no complication). A scheme based on these findings and the old American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association scheme were found to have c-statistics in the validation set of 0.672 and 0.620 (P = 0.010 vs old scheme), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Appreciation of these contemporary risk factors for complications of coronary intervention may assist in patient selection and in risk adjustment for comparison of outcomes between providers.