Enhanced outcomes for coronary artery disease obtained by a multidisciplinary heart team approach

Background We implemented our multidisciplinary heart team (MHT) approach since 2012 for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and assessed the effectiveness of it by comparing outcomes in patients treated before and after the introduction of the MHT approach. Methods Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for CAD were performed in 802 and 57 patients from 2009 to 2011 in Group NH, and were performed in 867 and 160 patients from 2012 to 2014 in Group H, respectively. The primary outcome was major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE), defined as the composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction, stroke, cardiac-related readmission and target vessel repeat revascularisation (TVR) for PCI or revascularisation on grafted vessels for CABG. Results MACCE occurred significantly more often in Group NH than in Group H at 3 years postoperatively (28.1% vs 21.1%) (log rank P = 0.001). Cox regression analysis showed that the MHT approach [hazard ratio (HR), 0.737; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.60-0.91; P = 0.004] and ejection fraction (HR 0.976; 95% CI, 0.97-0.98; P < 0.0001) were associated with significantly lower rates of MACCE events, while SYNTAX score (HR 1.023; 95% CI 1.00-1.03, P < 0.0001) and EuroSCORE II (HR 1.014, 95% CI 0.60-0.91, P = 0.004) were associated with a higher rate of MACCE events. Conclusion Our MHT approach was able to reduce the MACCE events of treatment for CAD. The dedicated MHT approach might be beneficial for patients with CAD.