Fractional Flow Reserve and Appropriateness of Angioplasty in Moderate Coronary Stenosis

Percutaneous coronary angioplasty (PTCA) of a coronary stenosis without documented ischemia at noninvasive stress testing is often performed, but its benefit is unproven. Coronary pressure– derived fractional flow reserve (FFR) is an invasive index of stenosis severity defined as the ratio of maximal blood pressure in a stenotic vessel to the normal maximal pressure in the same vessel. FFR is a reliable substitute for noninvasive stress testing and values below 75% identifies stenoses with hemodynamic significance. It is a method that can provide a reliable assessment of coronary stenosis especially in those with intermediate lesions. It can highly impact on decision-making in therapeutic planning and prevent many unnecessary procedures that are routinely done in these cases. In the present study, we report the results of FFR measurements in a series of patients, and this is the first report on the FFR measurement in Iran. The FFR measurement was performed for eleven vessels with intermediate stenosis, and in seven lesions (63.6%) it led to changes in the treatment strategy. On the basis of FFR, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was changed into medical follow-up in five lesions, medical follow-up changed to PCI in one lesion, and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) changed to medical follow-up in another.