Aims: There is uncertainty on the clinical outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with left ventricular dysfunction (LVD). We thus performed a systematic review of studies reporting on PCI in LVD.
Methods and results: Pertinent studies were searched in PubMed, and included if reporting on >/=30 patients, with ejection fraction < 50%, and prevalently (>60%) treated with stents. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) at the longest follow-up. Outcomes were pooled with random-effect methods (95% confidence intervals). We retrieved 11 studies including 1,284 patients with ejection fraction <50% (specifically <40% in 1,033 and <30% in 211). All studies but one reported on bare-metal stenting only. In-hospital MACE occurred in 5% (3-6), with death in 2% (1-3), myocardial infarction in 3% (2-4), and repeat revascularisation in 1% (0-2). After a median of 18 months, MACE occurred in 33% (30-36), with death in 11% (9-13), myocardial infarction in 7% (6-9), and repeat revascularisation in 15% (13-18). Meta-regression suggested the beneficial impact of drug-eluting stents on MACE (p=0.030).
Conclusions: Currently available data support the adoption of percutaneous revascularisation in carefully selected patients with LVD. While event attrition remains substantial at long-term follow-up, drug-eluting stents hold the promise of significantly improving event-free and overall survival.