Effect of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in patients with chronic occlusion of right coronary artery on clinical characteristics and stress MRI indicators in postoperative period

Objective. In the last few years CTO angioplasty technique has shown high rates of procedural success and low rates of complications, but benefits from CTO recanalization are still not clear. In this report, the authors try to evaluate the effectiveness of CTO recanalization and discuss the diagnostic tool that might improve the appropriateness of CTO percutaneous coronary intervention. Methods. We examined and treated 72 patients, with 39 patients undergoing CTO-PCI of the right coronary artery (Group 1) and 33 receiving medical therapy only (Group 2). The perfusion areas of the CTO vessel and the clinical status of patients were evaluated. The follow-up period was 2 and 12 months. Results. According to stress MRI data, throughout the study, patients who underwent RCA stenting had a significantly higher risk of reducing the functional class of heart failure, the best performance at 6-min treadmill test and a low class of angina (below III), as well as a decreased number of perfusion defect points (less than 5) as compared with those of the control group (p