Revascularisation in Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction: A Meta-analysis of Kaplan-Meier Reconstructed Individual Patient Data.

Background: Coronary artery disease is a common cause of ischemic left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD), for which the optimal revascularisation strategy remains unclear. We aimed to determine whether percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) results in greater survival advantage in patients with LVSD.

Methods: Study-level (SLMA) and reconstructed individual patient data (rIPDMA) meta-analyses from Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival curves were performed. A systematic search of Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Library was conducted for observational and randomised studies published after 2010 that compared PCI and CABG in patients with left ventricular ejection fraction ≤ 40%. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality at longest follow-up. The secondary outcomes were myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, repeated revascularisation, cardiovascular mortality, and major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) at longest follow-up.

Results: Fourteen studies (11 observational, 3 randomised, 13,063 patients) were eligible for the SLMA. Seven contained digitisable KM curves from which individual patient data could be reconstructed. Study-level analysis found PCI to be associated with increased all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18-1.69), MI (HR 2.10, 95% CI 1.62-2.72), repeated revascularisation (HR 2.39, 95% CI 1.37-4.17), and MACCE (HR 1.58, 95% CI 1.23-2.03), without significant differences in stroke (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.39-1.92) or cardiovascular mortality (HR 1.42, 95% CI 0.78-2.59). In the rIPDMA, PCI resulted in increased all-cause mortality (HR 1.57, 95% CI 1.34-1.87) and repeated revascularisation (HR 3.63, 95% CI 3.12-4.21) but overall lower risk of stroke (HR 0.62, 95% CI 0.39-0.99) owing to fewer events during initial follow-up.

Conclusions: In patients with ischemic LVSD, PCI was associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality and repeated revascularisation than CABG, but lower risk of short-term stroke. (PROSPERO: CRD42021291408).