Coronary artery involvement significantly increases mortality of patients with Takayasu arteritis (TA); however, the optimal revascularization strategy for this condition has not been established. We aimed to compare the long-term outcomes of TA patients with coronary artery involvement treated with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention with stenting (PCI).
Data from 46 TA patients with coronary artery involvement were analyzed according to their revascularization strategies. The resulting events included myocardial infarction, repeated revascularization, cardiac death, and the major adverse cardiac events (MACE), which is a combination of the former events.
The risk of MACE was significantly higher in the PCI group than in the CABG group during a median of 41.0 months follow-up (P < 0.001), especially in those who underwent revascularization at the active stage of TA (P = 0.001), whereas no difference was found between PCI and CABG groups in patients who underwent revascularization at the stable stage of TA (P = 0.138). The incidence of MACE was higher in TA patients at the active stage than those at the stable stage in all patients (P < 0.001). For patients at the active stage, the risk of MACE was significantly lower in patients with than those without usage of prednisone (P = 0.028); while no difference was found between patients who were stable not requiring prednisone and patients who were stable on prednisone (P = 0.525).
With regard to MACE, CABG is superior to PCI despite medical therapy in TA patients with coronary artery involvement. In TA patients at the stable stage, PCI is similar with CABG in prognosis. For patients at the active stage, if emergency revascularization is necessary, CABG is ideal; if not, receiving medical therapy until disease remission and then undergoing PCI may be an alternative choice of CABG.