Cardiology and CTVS Medicine

High-Risk Plaque Tied To Increased Risk Of MACE Among Patients With MI And FFR-Negative Non-Culprit Lesions: JAMA

• byDoctor News Daily Team
• 18 February, 2025
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Netherlands: The presence of a fractional flow reserve (FFR)-negative high-risk non-culprit plaque is tied to worse clinical outcomes in patients with myocardial infarction (MI), a recent study published in JAMA Cardiology has suggested.
In the cohort study of 420 patients with MI, MACE (defined as nonfatal MI, all-cause mortality, and unplanned revascularization) occurred in 15% of the patients with and 8% without a high-risk plaque after 2 years.

"After adjustment for clinical variables, the presence of a high-risk plaque was associated with a 2-fold increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), driven primarily by higher revascularization rates," the researchers reported in the PECTUS-obs trial.
Even after FFR-guided complete revascularization, patients with MI have high rates of recurrent MACE. These recurrences may be caused by FFR-negative high-risk non-culprit lesions. Jan-Quinten Mol, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and colleagues aimed to assess the association between optical coherence tomography (OCT)-identified high-risk plaques of FFR-negative non-culprit lesions and occurrence of MACE in MI patients.
PECTUS-obs is a multicenter, international, prospective, observational cohort study. OCT was performed on all FFR-negative (FFR > 0.80) non-culprit lesions in patients presenting with MI enrolled from 2018 to 2020.
The primary endpoint of MACE was compared in patients with and without a high-risk plaque.
The researchers reported the following findings:
A total of 438 patients were enrolled, and OCT findings were analysed in 420. Among the included patients, the mean age was 63 years, 340 were men, and STEMI and non-STEMI were equally represented (51.7% and 48.3%). A mean of 1.17 non-culprit lesions per patient was imaged.
Analysis of OCT images revealed at least 1 high-risk plaque in 34.0% of patients.
The primary endpoint occurred in 15.4% of patients with a high-risk plaque and 8.3% of patients without a high-risk plaque (hazard ratio, 1.93), primarily driven by more unplanned revascularizations in patients with a high-risk plaque (9.8% versus 4.3%).
The presence of a high-risk plaque is tied to a worse clinical outcome among patients with MI and FFR-negative non-culprit lesions, mainly driven by a higher number of unplanned revascularization.
"These results call for research on additional pharmacological or focal treatment strategies in patients harbouring high-risk plaques in a population with a high recurrent event rate despite physiology-guided complete revascularization," the researchers concluded.
Reference:
Mol J, Volleberg RHJA, Belkacemi A, et al. Fractional Flow Reserve–Negative High-Risk Plaques and Clinical Outcomes After Myocardial Infarction. JAMA Cardiol. 2023;8(11):1013–1021. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2023.2910