Background: In cases of in-stent restenosis, intracoronary radiotherapy with beta-emitters and gamma-emitters has been shown to reduce the risk of repeat restenosis. The present randomised, placebo-controlled study addresses the question of whether intracoronary radiotherapy applied by the easy-to-handle Rhenium liquid-filled angioplasty balloon system is also able to reduce the angiographic re-restenosis rate in stents.
Methods and results: At our center, from May 2000 to December 2003, 165 patients (mean age 64+/-10, median 65 years; 127 men, 38 women) with symptomatic in-stent restenosis underwent either intracoronary brachytherapy or sham procedure. Index clinical and angiographic parameters were largely comparable in both groups. Radiation therapy was performed with a standard percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) balloon catheter inflated with liquid Rhenium in the redilated in-stent restenosis for 240-890, mean 384+/-125 s with low pressure (3 atm) in order to reach 30 Gy at 0.5 mm depth of the vessel wall. In 82 patients, intracoronary radiotherapy was carried out without complications, but one of the 83 patients who underwent sham procedure suffered small myocardial infarction. During follow-up, stent thrombosis with subsequent non-Q-wave myocardial infarction occurred in one patient in each group (6 days and 8 months after the procedure, respectively). At 6 months after the index procedure, repeat angiography was performed in 156 of the 164 patients with successful procedure (rate 95%): restenosis (stenosis >50% in diameter) or reocclusion was observed in only 19 of 78 (=24%) patients of the radiation but in 31 of 78 (=40%) patients of the sham procedure group (P=0.04). Event-free survival (free of death, myocardial infarction, target vessel revascularization) at 1 year was 87% for patients being radiated and 74% for patients having undergone sham procedure (P=0.05).
Conclusions: Intracoronary radiation therapy with the liquid-filled beta-emitting Rhenium balloon is not only easy to perform, safe, and comparably inexpensive but also an effective option to prevent repeat restenosis and the need for target vessel revascularization in cases of in-stent restenosis.