Coronary Artery Stenosis Evaluation by Angiography-Derived FFR Validation by Positron Emission Tomography and Invasive Thermodilution

BACKGROUND Fractional flow reserve (FFR) derived from invasive coronary angiography (QFR) is promising for evaluation of intermediate coronary artery stenosis. OBJECTIVES The authors aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of QFR and the guideline-recommended invasive FFR using 82Rubidium positron emission tomography (82Rb-PET) myocardial perfusion imaging as reference standard. METHODS This is a prospective, observational study of symptomatic patients with suspected obstructive coronary artery disease on coronary computed tomography angiography (>= 50% diameter stenosis in >= 1 vessel). All patients were referred to 82Rb-PET and invasive coronary angiography with FFR and QFR assessment of all intermediate (30%-90% diameter stenosis) stenoses. Main analyses included a comparison of the ability of QFR and FFR to identify reduced myocardial blood flow (<2 mL/g/min) during vasodilation and/or relative perfusion abnormalities (summed stress score >= 4 in >= 2 adjacent segments).RESULTS A total of 250 patients (320 vessels) with indication for invasive physiological assessment were included. The continuous relationship of 82Rb-PET stress myocardial blood flow per 0.10 increase in FFR was +0.14 mL/g/min (95% CI: 0.07-0.21 mL/g/min) and +0.08 mL/g/min (95% CI: 0.02-0.14 mL/g/min) per 0.10 QFR increase. Using 82Rb-PET as reference, QFR and FFR had similar diagnostic performance on both a per-patient level (accuracy: 73%; 95% CI: 67%-79%; vs accuracy: 71%; 95% CI: 64%-78%) and per-vessel level (accuracy: 70%; 95% CI: 64%-75%; vs accuracy: 68%; 95% CI: 62%-73%). The per-vessel feasibility was 84% (95% CI: 80%-88%) for QFR and 88% (95% CI: 85%-92%) for FFR by intention-to-diagnose analysis. CONCLUSIONS With 82Rb-PET as reference modality, the wire-free QFR solution showed similar diagnostic accuracy as invasive FFR in evaluation of intermediate coronary stenosis. (DAN-NICAD - Danish Study of Non-Invasive Diagnostic Testing in Coronary Artery Disease; NCT02264717) (J Am Coll Cardiol Img 2023;16:1321-1331) (c) 2023 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation.

Automated summary

This study compares the diagnostic performance of non-invasive QFR and invasive FFR in evaluating intermediate coronary artery stenosis. The results show that the wire-free QFR solution has similar diagnostic accuracy to invasive FFR, suggesting that QFR can be a feasible alternative for assessing the severity of coronary artery stenosis.