Efficacy of intravascular imaging-guided drug-eluting stent implantation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

Background Traditional angiography only displays two-dimensional images of the coronary arteries during stent implantation. However, intravascular imaging can show the structure of the vascular wall, plaque characteristics. This article aims to evaluate the efficacy of intravascular imaging-guided drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation. Method We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of intravascular imaging-guided, including patients with DES implantation guided by intravascular ultrasound or optical coherence tomography and traditional angiography. The databases of PubMed, EMBASE, web of science, and Cochrane Library were searched. The primary outcome was target lesion revascularization (TLR). The secondary outcomes included the target vessel revascularization (TVR), myocardial infarction (MI), stent thrombosis (ST), cardiac death, all-cause death, and the major adverse cardiac events (MACE) during the 6-24 months follow-up. The fixed-effects model was used to calculate the relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval of the outcome event. Meanwhile, the trial sequence analysis was employed to evaluate the results. Result This meta-analysis included fourteen randomized controlled trials with 7307 patients. Compared with angiography-guided, intravascular imaging-guided DES implantation can significantly reduce the risk of TLR (RR 0.63, 0.49-0.82, P = 0.0004), TVR (RR 0.66, 0.52-0.85, P = 0.001), cardiac death (RR 0.58; 0.38-0.89; P = 0.01), MACE (RR 0.67, 0.57-0.79; P < 0.00001) and ST (RR 0.43, 0.24-0.78; P = 0.005). While there was no significant difference regarding MI (RR 0.77, 0.57-1.05, P = 0.10) and all-cause death (RR 0.87, 0.58-1.30, P = 0.50). Conclusions Compared with angiography, intravascular imaging-guided DES implantation is associated with better clinical outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease, especially complex lesions (Registered by PROSPERO, CRD 42021289205).

Automated summary

This meta-analysis suggests that intravascular imaging-guided drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation is associated with a significantly reduced risk of target lesion revascularization, target vessel revascularization, cardiac death, major adverse cardiac events, and stent thrombosis compared to angiography-guided DES implantation. However, there was no significant difference in myocardial infarction and all-cause death between the two groups.