Abstract
BACKGROUND: Drug-coated balloons (DCB) have been evaluated to be safe and practical in treating coronary small vessel disease (SVD). However, evidence about the practicality and safety of DCB in treating coronary lesions with diameters greater than 3.0 mm is limited. METHODS: 1166 patients who received DCB angioplasty were enrolled and divided into groups of SVD or large vessel disease (LVD) according to the target vessel diameters ( < 3.0 mm for SVD; ≥ 3.0 mm for LVD). All participants received a 2-year follow-up. The two main outcomes were patient-oriented composite endpoint (patient-oriented composite endpoint (POCE), all-cause mortality, all myocardial infarctions [MI], or any revascularization), and target lesion failure (target lesion failure (TLF), cardiac death, target vessel MI, or ischemia-driven target lesion revascularization). RESULTS: In these patients, a total of 30 (2.6%) TLF and 82 (7.0%) POCE were recorded. Patients in the LVD group showed statistically greater rates of lesion success compared to the SVD group (752 [96.0%] vs. 380 [99.2%], p = 0.004) and procedural success (751 [95.9%] vs. 380 [99.2%], p = 0.003). No significant difference was found in the 2-year risk of TLF (hazard ratio (HR) 1.41, 95% CI 0.58-3.44; p = 0.455), POCE (HR 1.29, 95% CI 0.76-2.20; p = 0.354), MI (HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.24-3.13; p = 0.837), revascularization (HR 1.22, 95% CI 0.68-2.21; p = 0.506), and stroke (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.03-15.26; p = 0.784) between the SVD and LVD groups. CONCLUSIONS: There was no discernible inferiority of the DCB intervention in the LVD group as compared to the SVD group. The DCB intervention is practical for coronary lesions with diameters higher than 3.0 mm.