Prevalence and clinical outcome of polyvascular atherosclerotic disease in patients undergoing coronary intervention.
BACKGROUND
The goal of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and outcomes of polyvascular disease (polyVD; defined as lower extremity artery disease, carotid artery disease, renal artery disease, or abdominal aortic aneurysm) in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).


METHODS AND RESULTS
The subjects were 1,597 patients who underwent PCI and who were prospectively enrolled in the study. The carotid, renal and peripheral arteries and abdominal aorta were simultaneously evaluated using duplex ultrasound and ankle-brachial index to evaluate the presence of polyVD. The primary endpoint was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE: cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction [MI], and stroke). PolyVD was found in 446 of 1,597 patients (27.9%). MACE were significantly higher in the polyVD group compared to those with coronary artery disease (CAD) alone (n=1,151; 12.1% vs. 3.8%, P<0.0001). The incidence of cardiovascular death and stroke were significantly higher in the polyVD group (7.9% vs. 1.6%, P<0.0001; 3.6% vs. 1.2%, P=0.006, respectively). The incidence of MI was similar in the 2 groups (3.7% vs. 1.3%, P=0.08). The adjusted hazard ratios for MACE in patients with 1, 2, and 3 arterial beds (compared with CAD alone) increased from 1.64 to 1.74 to 10.62 (P<0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
There was a high incidence of MACE in patients with polyVD undergoing PCI and this incidence increased with the number of arterial beds.