CRAGS (Coronary aRtery diseAse in younG adultS)

NCT ID: NCT01838746

Last Updated: 2015-05-28

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Total Enrollment: 2000 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2013-04-30
• Study Completion Date: 2016-12-31

Brief Summary

Young patients requiring myocardial revascularization are generally considered at low operative risk, but data on their immediate and late outcome are scarce. The decision-making process in these young patients is complicated by the potentially aggressive nature of premature coronary artery disease and their likely long expectancy of life, which expose them to a significantly higher risk of recurrent coronary events as well as the need of repeat revascularization. The lack of data on long-term outcome as well as on operative details (in particular, on the use of arterial grafts) and peri- and postoperative medication prevent any conclusive results on the durability either of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in these young patients. Furthermore, recent advances in stents technology as well in peri- and postoperative medical treatment indicate the need a comparative study to define the baseline characteristics of patients aged < 50 years undergoing either PCI or CABG and to evaluate their current immediate and late outcome.

Detailed Description

Age is, without any doubt, one of the most important risk factors for adverse events after any cardiovascular procedure and because of this it is incorporated in all major risk scoring methods. There is abundant literature dealing with the outcome of elderly patients undergoing cardiovascular procedures as their operative risk is significantly increased and preoperative risk assessment is of great importance in the decision-making process of these fragile patients (1). In the very elderly patients percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is an attractive treatment method, particularly in those with multiple comorbidities (2). On the other hand, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has been shown to be a durable procedure also among octogenarians (2).

Young patients requiring myocardial revascularization are generally considered at low operative risk, but data on their immediate and late outcome are scarce. However, the decision-making process in these young patients is complicated by the potentially aggressive nature of premature coronary artery disease and their likely long expectancy of life, which expose them to a significantly higher risk of recurrent coronary events as well as the need of repeat revascularization. CABG seems to more durable compared with percutaneous coronary intervention (3), particularly because of excellent late results with the use arterial grafts (4). Therefore, young patients with diffuse coronary artery diffuse may likely benefit of surgical revascularization. However, no formal comparative analysis of these two treatment methods has been previously performed in this young patient population. Since CABG is a major procedure with a potential risk of operative mortality and major morbidity, this is an argument against surgical revascularization, even if recent pooled data showed that it can be performed with an exceedingly low mortality risk (0.9%) (Biancari et al. submitted, Fig. 1).

Such a low postoperative mortality rate is similar to that reported by Khawaja et al. (5) in patients aged ≤ 50 years treated by PCI (0.86%). However, PCI was performed in 41% of these patients with single vessel coronary artery disease. This is likely to significantly differ from surgical series (6).

Only two studies evaluated the outcome after CABG in patients aged < 40 years (7) and < 50 years (8) and estimated a survival rate at 10 years of about 75%. A study by Ellis (9) addressed survival after PCI in 86 patients aged < 40 years and showed a 10-year survival rate of about 91%, but a significant number of patients underwent repeat PCI (37%) and/or CABG (22%). These findings should be viewed in the light of the fact that most of patients did not have diffuse coronary artery disease (3-vessel disease was present in 11% of patients) and they were treated about two decades ago. Khawaja et al. (6) reported on 2922 patients aged ≤ 50 years who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention since 1979 and having a 5-year survival of about 95%. They reported repeat target revascularization rates ranging from 19% to 27% according to different study periods.

The lack of data on long-term outcome as well as on operative details (in particular, on the use of arterial grafts) and peri- and postoperative medication prevent any conclusive results on the durability either of CABG of PCI in these young patients. Furthermore, recent advances in stents technology as well in peri- and postoperative medical treatment indicate the need a comparative study to define the baseline characteristics of patients aged < 50 years undergoing either PCI or CABG and to evaluate their current immediate and late outcome.

Conditions

Coronary Artery Disease; Acute Coronary Syndromes; Young Patient; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention; Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: COHORT
• Study Time Perspective: RETROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

PCI

Patients undergoing PCI

No interventions assigned to this group

CABG

Patients undergoing CABG

No interventions assigned to this group

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• age < 50

Exclusion Criteria

• age > 50

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 50 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Turku

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Fausto Biancari, MD

MD, PhD

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Fausto Biancari, MD, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Oulu University Hospital

Juhani Airaksinen, MD, PhD

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Turku University Hospital

Locations

Oulu University Hospital

Oulu, , Finland

Satakunta Central Hospital

Pori, , Finland

Tampere University Hospital

Tampere, , Finland

Turku University Hospital

Turku, , Finland

Vaasa Central Hospital

Vaasa, , Finland

University of Iceland

Reykjavik, , Iceland

University of Catania

Catania, , Italy

University of Verona Medical School

Verona, , Italy

Sahlgrenska Hospital

Gothenburg, , Sweden

Countries

Finland; Iceland; Italy; Sweden

References

Gunn J, Kuttila K, Vasques F, Virtanen R, Lahti A, Airaksinen J, Biancari F. Comparison of results of coronary artery bypass grafting versus percutaneous coronary intervention in octogenarians. Am J Cardiol. 2012 Oct 15;110(8):1125-9. doi: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2012.05.055. Epub 2012 Jul 3.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 22762714 (View on PubMed)

Nissinen J, Wistbacka JO, Loponen P, Korpilahti K, Teittinen K, Virkkila M, Tarkka M, Biancari F. Coronary artery bypass surgery in octogenarians: long-term outcome can be better than expected. Ann Thorac Surg. 2010 Apr;89(4):1119-24. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2009.12.063.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 20338317 (View on PubMed)

Kappetein AP, Feldman TE, Mack MJ, Morice MC, Holmes DR, Stahle E, Dawkins KD, Mohr FW, Serruys PW, Colombo A. Comparison of coronary bypass surgery with drug-eluting stenting for the treatment of left main and/or three-vessel disease: 3-year follow-up of the SYNTAX trial. Eur Heart J. 2011 Sep;32(17):2125-34. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehr213. Epub 2011 Jun 22.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 21697170 (View on PubMed)

Locker C, Schaff HV, Dearani JA, Joyce LD, Park SJ, Burkhart HM, Suri RM, Greason KL, Stulak JM, Li Z, Daly RC. Multiple arterial grafts improve late survival of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery: analysis of 8622 patients with multivessel disease. Circulation. 2012 Aug 28;126(9):1023-30. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.111.084624. Epub 2012 Jul 18.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 22811577 (View on PubMed)

Cole JH, Miller JI 3rd, Sperling LS, Weintraub WS. Long-term follow-up of coronary artery disease presenting in young adults. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2003 Feb 19;41(4):521-8. doi: 10.1016/s0735-1097(02)02862-0.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 12598059 (View on PubMed)

Canver CC, Nichols RD, Cooler SD, Heisey DM, Murray EL, Kroncke GM. Influence of increasing age on long-term survival after coronary artery bypass grafting. Ann Thorac Surg. 1996 Oct;62(4):1123-7. doi: 10.1016/0003-4975(96)00446-8.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 8823100 (View on PubMed)

Ellis CJ, French JK, White HD, Ormiston JA, Whitlock RM, Webster MW. Results of percutaneous coronary angioplasty in patients <40 years of age. Am J Cardiol. 1998 Jul 15;82(2):135-9. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9149(98)00318-x.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 9678280 (View on PubMed)

Lautamaki A, Airaksinen KE, Kiviniemi T, Vinco G, Ribichini F, Gunn J, Anttila V, Heikkinen J, Korpilahti K, Karjalainen P, Kajander O, Eskola M, Ilveskoski E, Axelsson T, Gudbjartsson T, Jeppsson A, Biancari F. Prognosis and disease progression in patients under 50 years old undergoing PCI: the CRAGS (Coronary aRtery diseAse in younG adultS) study. Atherosclerosis. 2014 Aug;235(2):483-7. doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2014.05.953. Epub 2014 Jun 9.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 24953487 (View on PubMed)

Biancari F, Gudbjartsson T, Heikkinen J, Anttila V, Makikallio T, Jeppsson A, Thimour-Bergstrom L, Mignosa C, Rubino AS, Kuttila K, Gunn J, Wistbacka JO, Teittinen K, Korpilahti K, Onorati F, Faggian G, Vinco G, Vassanelli C, Ribichini F, Juvonen T, Axelsson TA, Sigurdsson AF, Karjalainen PP, Mennander A, Kajander O, Eskola M, Ilveskoski E, D'Oria V, De Feo M, Kiviniemi T, Airaksinen KE. Comparison of 30-day and 5-year outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention versus coronary artery bypass grafting in patients aged</=50 years (the Coronary aRtery diseAse in younG adultS Study). Am J Cardiol. 2014 Jul 15;114(2):198-205. doi: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2014.04.025. Epub 2014 May 2.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 24878127 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

CRAGS-1

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id