Long-term outcome and chest pain in patients with true versus non-true bifurcation lesions treated with second-generation drug-eluting stents in the TWENTE trial

The objective of this study is to assess 3-year clinical outcome of patients with true bifurcation lesions (TBLs) versus non-true bifurcation lesions (non-TBLs) following treatment with second-generation drug-eluting stents (DES). TBLs are characterized by the obstruction of both main vessel and side-branch. Limited data are available on long-term clinical outcome following TBL treatment with newer-generation DES. We performed an explorative sub-study of the randomized TWENTE trial among 287 patients who had bifurcated target lesions with side-branches ≥2.0 mm. Patients were categorized into TBL (Medina classes: 1.1.1; 1.0.1; 0.1.1) versus non-TBL to compare long-term clinical outcome. A total of 116 (40.4 %) patients had TBL, while 171 (59.6 %) had non-TBL only. Target-lesion revascularization rates were similar (3.5 vs. 3.5 %; p = 1.0), and definite-or-probable stent thrombosis rates were low (both <1.0 %). The target-vessel myocardial infarction (MI) rate was 11.3 versus 5.3 % (p = 0.06), mostly driven by (periprocedural) MI ≤48 h from PCI. All-cause mortality and cardiac death rates were 8.7 versus 3.5 % (p = 0.06) and 3.5 versus 1.2 % (p = 0.22), respectively. The 3-year major adverse cardiac event rate for patients with TBL versus non-TBL was 20.0 versus 11.7 % (p = 0.05). At 1-, 2-, and 3-year follow-up, 6.5, 13.0, and 11.0 % of patients reported chest pain at less than or equal moderate physical effort, respectively, without any between-group difference. Patients treated with second-generation DES for TBL had somewhat higher adverse event rates than patients with non-TBL, but dissimilarities did not reach statistical significance. Up to 3-year follow-up, the vast majority of patients of both groups remained free from chest pain.