Fractional flow reserve-guided PCI as compared with coronary bypass surgery (FAME III)- another brick in the wall!

Pradeep Narayan1

  • 1Department of Cardiac Surgery; Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Narayana Health, 124, EM Bypass, Mukundapur, Kolkata, 700099 India.

Insights

Coronary artery bypass grafting showed better outcomes than fractional flow reserve-guided percutaneous coronary interventions at one year. FFR-guided PCI did not meet noninferiority criteria in the FAME III trial.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Interventional Cardiology
  • Clinical Trials

Background:

  • Fractional flow reserve (FFR) guides percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI).
  • The FAME III trial investigated FFR-guided PCI versus coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare the efficacy and safety of FFR-guided PCI against CABG.
  • To determine if FFR-guided PCI meets noninferiority criteria compared to CABG.

Main Methods:

  • Multi-centric randomized controlled trial (FAME III).
  • Comparison of FFR-guided PCI with CABG in patients with multi-vessel coronary artery disease.

Main Results:

  • CABG demonstrated a significantly lower incidence of the composite endpoint (mortality, stroke, MI, repeat revascularizations) at 1 year compared to FFR-guided PCI.
  • FFR-guided PCI failed to meet noninferiority criteria.

Conclusions:

  • CABG is associated with superior clinical outcomes compared to FFR-guided PCI at 1 year.
  • Current FFR-guided PCI strategies require re-evaluation for patients with multi-vessel coronary artery disease.