Does the presence of systemic artery-pulmonary circulation shunt during bronchial arterial embolization increase the recurrence of noncancer-related hemoptysis? A retrospective cohort study.

Background: The presence of systemic artery-pulmonary circulation shunt (SPS) during the bronchial arterial embolization (BAE) procedure, has been inferred to be a potential risk factor for recurrence. The aim of this study is to reveal the impact of SPS on the recurrence of noncancer-related hemoptysis after BAE.

Methods: In this study, 134 patients with SPS (SPS-present group) and 192 patients without SPS (SPS-absent group) who underwent BAE for noncancer-related hemoptysis from January 2015 to December 2020 were compared. Four different Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to clarify the impact of SPSs on hemoptysis recurrence after BAE.

Results: During the median follow-up time of 39.8 months, recurrence occurred in 75 (23.0%) patients, including 51 (38.1%) in the SPS-present group and 24 (12.5%) in the SPS-absent group. The 1-month, 1-year, 2-year, 3-year and 5-year hemoptysis-free survival rates in the SPS-present and SPS-absent groups were 91.8%, 79.7%, 70.6%, 62.3%, and 52.6% and 97.9%, 94.7%, 89.0%, 87.1%, and 82.3%, respectively (P < 0.001). The adjusted hazard ratios of SPSs in the four models were 3.37 [95% confidence intervals (CI), 2.07-5.47, P < 0.001 in model 1], 1.96 (95% CI, 1.11-3.49, P = 0.021 in model 2), 2.29 (95% CI, 1.34-3.92, P = 0.002 in model 3), and 2.39 (95% CI, 1.44-3.97, P = 0.001 in model 4).

Conclusions: The presence of SPS during BAE increases the recurrence probability of noncancer-related hemoptysis after BAE.